


Walking the Line

by how_about_a_maybe



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Author doesn't know what they're doing, Canon-Typical Violence, Competent OC, Hurt/Comfort, Marley (Shingeki no Kyojin), Marley - Freeform, My First AO3 Post, Not Beta Read, OC insert, OC reborn as Lara Tybur, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Canon, Self-Insert, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Manga Spoilers, Siblings, Spoilers, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Undecided Relationship(s), Willy Tybur is a Good Brother, and does her best to fix things, duh - Freeform, no beta we die like men, really more of an oc but meh I'll put the tag there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29418405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_about_a_maybe/pseuds/how_about_a_maybe
Summary: She had never asked for this, never asked for a second chance, for “another go at things”, never wanted to have been reborn into a fictional world (much less one as gruesome as SnK), and yet… Here she was. In the body of Lara Tybur. The Warhammer Titan. And she has twenty years till the world gets trampled.Armed with a whole bunch of foreknowledge but not a lot of time, Lara tries her best to arrange a Happy Ending for the characters she holds so dear, even while being stuck on the Marleyan continent.Just please let her survive to adulthood.
Comments: 50
Kudos: 145





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I binged the entirety of Attack on Titan recently to prepare for the release of s4, but ended up halfway just saying screw it and reading the manga too, which is on its second-to-last volume. Hence, there will be MANGA SPOILERS in this. Don't say I didn't warn you! I've always been a huge sucker for oc-insert fics, but I've never actually had the courage to write one before, so this will be a bit experimental.
> 
> This will be my first fic on ao3, so I'm still sorta getting used to the site. If there's anything funky in the formatting or grammar or whatever, then pls let me know.

It was dark and warm, a sort of soundlessness pervading her senses. There was no room, no air to breathe, no sense of up or down, left or right. Floating in bliss, completely detached from the mortal coil.

Pain eluded her, as she had not the body to interpret it. There was no ground for her to rest her feet (feet, did she have feet?), no sights for her eyes to take in (she couldn’t feel a thing).

Ah, this is so nice.

Perhaps she was dead? This must be what death felt like.

No God, no Heaven, just the sensation of being engulfed in comfort. As if she had been wrapped in a hundred warm blankets or submerged in a hot bath, and her mind had floated away to paradise.

If this state of consciousness was to be where she spent eternity, well, somehow she didn’t really feel she would mind all that much.

But how did I die?

Had it been an accident? Had she been run over on the way to school? The details were fuzzy, indefinite, the memory refusing to come at her inquest.

She hadn’t exactly lived a dangerous life, right? Never one to take unnecessary risks or skirt the line of safety. God, she had never even broken a bone before. If she had died, really and truly died, it was most likely the result of cosmic randomness. Just unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time. A victim of chance.

What was even the last thing she could remember? Her life, everything- it seemed so distant now, like it had happened to a completely different person. Almost as if out of focus, a blurry picture of what was once crystal clear.

Well, she supposed it wasn’t all that important, knowing the exact circumstances of her untimely death. It wouldn’t help her now, if she was really in the afterlife. Maybe bring a sense of closure, but nothing more.

Still though, I wanted to know.

It was her death, right? Something so deeply personal, and she didn’t even have a clue as to how it had occurred. Some people are defined by their deaths, and maybe the memories she was missing contained something of unparalleled importance to her. Maybe she had died in a terrorist attack, one of thousands, or maybe she had taken a bullet for another, and had died having saved a life. Didn’t she deserve to know?

But she didn’t know, and she’d probably never find out.

Oh well.

A tug then jostled her consciousness, causing the notspace around her to shift.

Almost as if a switch had been flipped, the blissful world she had been residing in became discordant, suffocating her. Pain, she could feel pain, and her formless existence desperately tried to shift away from it, but the whole realm seemed to turn against her, squishing and constricting.

Vaguely, she had the notion that she was being transported, carried along by the pulsing channel and she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe-

In all of her existence, even counting this strange state after death, she had never been more terrified. Nothing had filled her with such dread and helplessness as she tried to fight this unopposable force, locked in a battle she knew she couldn’t win.

And suddenly, just like that, she was free.

Her lungs gasped for air, painfully inflating and deflating as oxygen was once more provided to her brain. A body, she now had a body: something to give her form as she desperately tried to struggle, to open her eyes.

The air around her was cold, almost freezing compared to the warm nothing she had been ejected from, and her vision, though present, was incredibly blurry, making it impossible to identify her surroundings.

Noises swam around her head, but her brain was unable to process them. It felt like she was drunk, like she had been so heavily medicated that the world around her had been reduced to nothing but a typhoon of sound and sensation. She wasn’t aware of her body, couldn’t distinguish her toes from her legs from her chest.

Then, red flooded her blurry vision and something warm was wrapped around her, and though she could not see, she was certain she was being lifted.

“Hier sind Sie, Fräulein. Ein gesundes Mädchen!”

Ah, a voice! And a distinguishable one at that. She was almost certain the words were German, having been acquaintances with the language in her previous life, but as to what was being said, she had no clue.

Thin limbs encircled her, large enough to support her entire body, and she was slowly lowered to rest on a flat surface.

What was going on? German words, giants, and the inability to see clearly: certainly this couldn’t be happening.

A small voice in the back of her mind whispered “you know what this is, you know what’s happening,” but it was staunchly ignored.

“Willy, komm und sieh deine neue Schwester.”

A cold appendage tapped her face, and she scrunched up her features in an attempt to ward it off. Oh, how she wished she could see her mysterious attacker!

“Wie heißt sie?”

A much younger voice than the previous two, bright and youthful. It seemed a tad masculine? Perhaps a little boy.

She was losing the war within herself, trying to deny the knowledge of what she was pretty sure was going on. Oh god, please don’t let her be right.

“Lara.”

And yeah, these mystery people were talking about her, weren’t they?

Even with her underdeveloped nose, she couldn’t mistake the scent of antiseptic that pervaded the room. She couldn’t ignore the feeling of her own body, near unresponsive to her commands.

Something had changed, something had happened, and though she desperately didn’t want to acknowledge it, didn’t want to give the unsettling idea form, there was no denying exactly what was going on here.

She was an infant.

She had somehow died and been reborn into the body of an infant.

And her name was Lara.

Well, of all the things to be named, she supposed that she had gotten rather lucky. It even seemed feminine, which hopefully indicated that she had at least retained her gender.

All in all, it could be worse.

She -no, Lara- sighed as much as her feeble body would allow, and relaxed into the fabric swaddling her.

What was she supposed to do? There was very little chance she could mimic the actions of an infant. Hell, she wasn’t even bawling her eyes out after having been born (she really didn’t want to linger on that thought), which was perhaps a constant for every healthy baby on the face of the planet.

Lara had no idea how to behave like a perfectly functioning baby.

If only she had a twin, someone who’s development she could observe and keep pace with. That would have made this new existence much more convenient, at the very least.

But sadly, the room she was situated in seemed completely bereft of the cries of a squalling infant, and was much too calm to indicate the presence of a second baby on the way. All seemed quiet, other than the jabbering of what was probably her parental unit.

Small, much smaller arms than that of the previous person, slowly lifted her form, and Lara was reminded of the young boy’s voice she had noted earlier.

Gold drapings filled her vision, and a sweet voice spoke. “Hallo, Lara. Ich bin Willy, dein neuer Bruder.”

Willy, his name was Willy: that much she could pick up, at least.

A warm feeling began to spread through her chest, and despite herself, despite the maddening circumstances and the dread of having to feign childhood, Lara allowed herself to smile.

She had never had a sibling before. Her previous life, while still something she dearly missed, had been rather lonely. Lara had grown up in solitude, her parents always too busy to entertain her. It hadn’t been bad, as their work permitted her to live in relative comfort, but it hadn’t been ideal.

But maybe it would be different, this time.

A cold finger returned to tap her face, and Lara let out a small coo in response.

Whatever happened, it would be ok. This was a new chance at life, after all, and she would be remiss to waste it worrying about things out of her control. Whatever came, whatever problems she encountered, Lara was sure she could deal with them then. For now, all she had to worry about was being a good baby for her family. Easy.

She would be fine.

* * *

Her new family was rather ordinary.

Lara’s room was nice, with an old fashioned cradle in the center and shelves of toys and books lining the pink walls. It looked like a typical nursery, though rather larger than she had first expected.

Her parents, a man and woman whose faces she could still barely focus on, visited her occasionally, but never stayed for long. Each time, they brought the blur of yellow that Lara assumed to be her brother, who always made a beeline for her cradle, standing over her and making strange faces.

Willy was cute, with a healthy pink complexion and a button nose. With soft blond hair lining his face, he truly resembled a cherub. Though he appeared at first a tad too excitable, he always handled her gently, taking care not to squish her in his arms.

If Lara had to guess, she would assume him to be around 10. He had the look of an adolescent, still a few years off from puberty.

Other than Willy’s supervised visits, the only person to frequent Lara’s room was her caretaker, an austere woman who seemed to have the job of handling all her infant needs.

Snack several times a day, a block of time set aside in the afternoon for a visit from her family, and the rest of Lara’s time was spent alone, left for her to lose herself in thought or nap the days away.

Constant chatter from her nanny gave her the opportunity to listen to and try to decipher the new language, which certainly had Germanic inspirations. It wasn’t all too dissimilar from English, making it a bit less difficult than she expected to pick it up, though the process was admittedly slow going.

It was rather likely that her infant brain was helping her learn the language faster than normal, though Lara had no real proof of that fact.

The only thing that struck her as strange was her family’s manner of dress.

Her parents always wore formal clothes when they came to visit her. Even Willy was always dressed in some nice ensemble, as if he was coming home from an extravagant party. She was not spared either from this exercise in formality, her infant body clothed daily in incredibly soft and attractive garments.

Traditional floor length dresses and suits were well enough, but Lara still found them to be a bit odd. It seemed… ill at place with the rest of what she observed.

She figured that, fine, they probably just fixated on appearances and chose to spend a good portion of their money cultivating it.

There was nothing else about her new life that stuck out that much, though Lara supposed she had yet to see any sort of modern technology. Everything about this new environment seemed rather old fashioned, from the solid wood furniture lining the walls of her room, to the fine hand-carved mobile that hung above her head.

It was only during her first birthday party that Lara truly noticed that something was amiss.

Her parents had proved to be rather well-off, as judged from the very fact they could afford a full time nanny, and the level of decor that garnished her room. When the time came for her very first birthday, they seemingly went all out, filling the huge house with decorations.

Lara hadn’t seen much outside of her room till then, but she was still astounded by the size of the manor that her family seemed to call home.

It was something straight out of a fairytale, with a grand entryway and gold-lined furnishings. In her previous life, Lara had once had the good fortune to tour the Palace of Versailles, and though she was stunned to admit it, her new residency certainly had more in common with that opulent structure than it did with her old house.

Every feature of the new space was filled with some finery or another, and Lara found herself a bit disgusted at the gaudy display.

Had she been reborn into some German noble’s family? How else was she to explain her surroundings?

When Lara was brought before a crowd of finely-dressed people, she realized with trepidation that she was being forced to participate in a social event.

Her parents carried her around the room and shook over a hundred hands, guests flocking to her in an attempt to catch her attention. Lara felt as if she was a shiny new toy that her family was showing off, being paraded ‘round for the amusement of others. Willy followed hesitantly behind, trailing in his parent’s footsteps. He looked rather uncomfortable too.

Servers deftly made their way through the crowd, taking care not to disturb the party-goers as they refilled drinks and picked up dishes.

God, her parents had servants, too? A nanny was one thing, but staff was another. Perhaps they had just been hired to manage the party?

These new people were dressed finely as well, looking as if they were attending a gala, rather than a one-year-old’s first birthday party. They were also quite varied in appearance, with guests donning kimonos and wraps on top of the traditional dresses Lara was used to.

When the meet-and-greet was over, her father placed her down in a large enclosed area and left to attend to his guests.

There were, of course, other babies in the pen, squalling beasts that were probably around her age. Lara assumed them to be the offspring of the party guests, of whom she wanted nothing to do with.

One particularly brave infant crawled up to her and made a grab for her hair with its sticky fingers, and Lara decided she had had enough.

She let herself begin to bawl, her face going red with the exertion of an infant throwing a tantrum as her wails echoed off the walls. Lara hadn’t exactly been a noisy baby so far, opting more to use coos and warbles to communicate her intentions to her caregivers, but gentle directions could only go so far, and she desperately wanted out of this farce of a toddler’s birthday party.

Immediately, small arms scooped her up, and Lara was carried out and away from the baby pen.

“There, there… ‘s ok, Lara..”

It was Willy who had come to her rescue, deftly extracting her from the mayhem of the party and settling into a cozy alcove along the walls of the great hall. One of his child-like hands came up to stroke her hair, and Lara allowed herself to be soothed by her brother’s ministrations.

“I don’ like these things either,” he mumbled, adjusting her so that she sat comfortably on his lap.

Out of all the things this new life had blessed her with, Lara was most grateful for her older brother. Willy was attentive, affectionate in a way both her parents were not. His routinely visits were the highlight of her day, and Lara had already given him the honor of his name being her “first” word.

Having a sibling, a brother who cared for her no less, was such a novel thing, and Lara looked forward to the time when she could answer back all his words with words of her own.

A loud crash resounded through the hall, and Lara lifted her head to investigate the source of the noise.

“Filthy Eldian!”

A server was sprawled out on the floor, fine attire stained by the glasses of wine they had been carrying. A fat man, mustache so large that it could very well crawl off his face, loomed over the poor employee with an angry scowl.

“Are you incapable of sight? Do you not see how you’ve bumped into me? Apologize!” the fat man roared. Nearby guests had also stopped, looking on at the scene with disgust.

Lara felt the arms around her tighten, and looked up to see Willy’s face marred with a look of discomfort. He bit his lip, not making a move to join the disagreement.

“I’m so sorry!” the server cried, straightening into a bow from his place on the floor, wine puddling around him. “I wasn’t looking where I was going! I deeply apologize!”

“Not good enough!” the noble yelled, smashing his foot down on the poor servant’s hand. The server let out a whimper of pain. “People like you don’t belong here. Those with filthy blood have no place among the nobles of Marley!”

Lara felt a jolt go through her. Marley, Eldian: where had she heard those words?

“Yes! I’m sorry!” the server was near tears, head bowed to the ground in deep supplication. “Please, forgive me!”

Many eyes were on the pair now, half of the room watching in interest as the fat noble swore and dabbed a handkerchief at his shirt, now slightly stained with wine. The server stayed frozen on the ground, not looking up in fear of agitating the man further.

From her place against the wall, Lara could just make out a white armband wrapped around the person’s upper left arm.

“Tch,” the man glanced around him, taking in the audience that had assembled. “Even the Tybur family isn’t safe from you devils. Don’t let it happen again!” He stalked off, leaving the waiter to quickly clean themselves up and scurry away.

Willy sighed in relief, loosening his grip on her and relaxing against the wall.

Lara felt as if her brain was going to explode.

Tybur. Marley. Eldian. Willy. Lara.

Her eyes widened.

There was no way. Such a thing was ludicrous, not to mention impossible. How could that even be true? Surely, surely there was a rational explanation to all this. Something that actually made sense.

She let her gaze drift up to her brother. Her blond brother, who showed sympathy for “Eldians”, who just so happened to be named Willy. Her brother, who talked to her for hours every day, who watched over her when she slept and protected her from the madness of her birthday party.  
She then glanced at the unfortunate server, still attempting to wipe the wine from their now-stained white armband, decorated with a suspicious nine-pointed star.

Such small puzzle pieces, and yet she had come to such an absurd conclusion. She wouldn’t have picked up on it, if she weren’t so familiar with the terms. It was a bit of a stretch, honestly, but something in Lara’s gut told her that she wasn’t lucky enough for it all to be a misunderstanding.

Tybur. Marley. Eldian. Willy. Lara.

Armbands. Xenophobia. No modern technology. Nobility.

She had been reborn into Attack on Titan.

Lara let a giggle escape her throat, then a laugh, as her brother looked down at her in surprise. Of all the things, of all the places, it had to be here? In the body of Lara Tybur? Inheritor of the Warhammer Titan? And, judging from how old Willy was, she had about a decade and a half till the world was destroyed by titans?

Oh god, she was so screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lara contemplates her situation.

Lara sat up in her toddler bed, staring out the large window in her room. It was just after 7 am, and morning sunlight shone into the visible courtyard, dying the stone walls a bright yellow. A notebook and pen were situated on her lap, both having been liberated from her nanny a few days earlier in an attempt to collect her thoughts.

Lara sighed and stared down at the diary.

Alright, so she was in a fictional universe.

That in itself, she supposed, wasn’t all that awful. Of course, the world of Attack on Titan wouldn’t have been her first choice; no, it wasn’t even on the list of stories she might want to end up in. And to have been reborn into the role of a character, a titan shifter no less? Lara would be lucky to make it to adulthood.

Well, she should just be grateful that she wasn’t born into the walls of Paradis as some random civilian. That certainly would have entailed a much shorter life expectancy, even if she didn’t join the military. As it stood now, though…

Actually, was any of this even real?

The idea hadn’t even occurred to Lara, as caught up in the moment as she was. She stilled, frowning at her lap.

Maybe she was in a coma? Trapped inside her own head, living out a fantasy while her body wasted away in a hospital somewhere? Sure, it didn’t feel like that to her, but… wasn’t that just a much more probable explanation to her situation?

People went into comas all the time. Being reborn in a fictional world? That didn’t happen nearly as frequently.

Could she afford to ignore this chance, though? If, and this was a major if, she had somehow, someway found herself really and truly living out the events of Attack on Titan…

God, what a headache.

She had to think about this objectively. What exactly did she have to lose here?

If this was somehow reality, then, according to the events of the story, a large portion of the world was doomed to be destroyed within her lifetime. Having foreknowledge and not doing anything to prevent that would be foolish. She could play along, go with the flow, only making little changes here and there, and end up saving a whole lot of people.

On the other hand, if this was reality and she chose to ignore it, living only for herself in a world that she thought of as not truly existing, then she’d probably not only go insane, but end up forsaking those whose deaths could be prevented.

And in the end, if this all did turn out to only be an illusion conjured by her comatose mind, well…

It wouldn’t hurt her to take things seriously, even if she made a fool out of herself

“...”

In that case, she should make a plan.

Lara twirled her pen ‘round her finger, staring off into the distance, deep in thought.

The end of the series hadn’t exactly been uplifting, with millions getting trampled on by titans. If Eren inherited the Founding Titan and triggered the Rumbling again… even if she ran away to a different part of the world, a good portion of the people on the Marleyan continent would die. It was pretty obvious that she needed to do something to prevent that, maybe even help establish Paradis as a nation, save some of the characters from untimely deaths.

Yeah, easier said than done.

“Ugh.”

Lara flopped back on her bed, letting her pen drop to her side.

If things went according to the manga, then she, Lara Tybur, would inherit the power of the Warhammer titan sometime in the next ten years. Probably. Canon ages were never given for her or Willy, after all, and she could only hope that such a thing came sooner rather than later. She wouldn’t be able to survive on Paradis without it.

Lara picked up her notebook and, with her stolen pen, wrote a “1” at the top of the first page.

First things first.

Any efforts made by the residents of Paradis would be rendered useless if Willy Tybur rallied the nations of the world to declare war against them. At that point, Eren had really had no other option than to use the powers of the Founding Titan, and even though he had broken his promise and attempted to raze the world to the ground, universal fear of the “island devils'' would only get them so far.

If Lara wanted to establish some semblance of “world peace”, she would need to fix Marley’s attitude towards Eldians.

Solve 100 years of racism and discrimination within the limited lifetime she had been given, huh?

Actually, Willy had done a pretty good job at that in his speech in Liberio. Lara, of course, hadn’t been able to see the fallout of it, but bringing the truth of Marley out into the light seemed to have invoked a good deal of sympathy for the Eldians. Problem was, she couldn’t afford to make Paradis an object of hatred. 

But Willy was the head of the Tybur family, and the Tyburs were the true rulers of Marley.

Would it be possible to influence Willy enough to change his stance on the citizens of Paradis?  
In her notebook, Lara wrote “Befriend Willy” next to the 1. 

If she could get Willy, and by proxy the power of the Tybur family, on her side, the groundwork would be set to help secure the independence of Paradis. 

“Right, next thing.”

As things stand right now, the kingdom in the walls isn’t ready to face the outside world. Before Paradis could begin to rally for the right to autonomy, the situation with their government needed to be dealt with.

In the manga, a coup d'etat was enacted against the corrupt wall leaders and their puppet king, and Historia was enthroned. Honestly, it was a good solution, and promised some stability as long as the government didn’t subscribe to Zeke’s 50 years plan and attempt to make Historia carry on the Beast Titan’s legacy. If Lara could get her back on the throne without the threat of Zeke, as long as Marley wasn’t an immediate threat, everything should work out alright.

Historia would probably make a pretty good leader when it came to peace talks with other nations. There was no greater example of the humanity of Eldians.

There was also the issue of the four Marleyan titan shifters that would be undercover within the walls at the time the main story started, the year 850.

Ymir wasn’t an enemy, more neutral if anything, though it would be bad if her power was put back in the hands of a hostile Marley. If she was loyal to Historia, then she could probably be counted on to side with Eldia when the time came.

Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths when they sundered Wall Maria, but it was that act of horrific violence that actually kicked the Survey Corps into gear. It was an awful, horrible thing, but it was also the inciting incident of the whole dang series.

Should she stop it? Could she stop it?

Lara grimaced.

Even IF she inherited the Warhammer Titan, even IF she managed to get to Paradis before the senshi, there was no way she could beat all three shifters.

Preventing the fall of Wall Maria would require her either A: intercept the three children after they landed on Paradis or B: stop Marley’s quest for the founding Titan, both of which Lara did not feel confident doing. As a child, she had incredibly limited power, political or otherwise.

Besides, if she meddled too much before the start of the plot, then she ran the risk of making the situation even worse for herself.

But maybe she could covertly reduce casualties?

But the government would only kill off the people she saved by sacrificing them in a “war” against the titans.

How about trying to reason with the three titan shifters?

Granted, they would be brainwashed little kids at that point, only following the orders of the great Marleyan Empire, so there was little chance she could get them to defect. Maybe Annie, but not Bertholdt or Reiner.

Though maybe she could use their loyalty to her advantage.

Above all, the senshi were acting out of a sense of duty to their family and nation. If Willy and her were really able to enact social change within Marley, perhaps they could be convinced to side with their movement? They were, after all, Eldians, and wanted what was best for their people. Would they side with the Tyburs if given the chance?

She would approach them, them. When would be the best time?

They would probably be most sympathetic to her cause after joining the 104th squad regiment. Living with the citizens of Paradis could only do them good, and she wouldn’t have to track them down within the walls while Annie played spy with the Military Police.

If she brought evidence of her claim, revealed the truth of Eldia and her family’s goals to fix the status quo, then maybe, just maybe, she could prevent the Battle of Trost and all subsequent titan battles.

With the titan shifters on her side, she could approach the Survey Corps with her plan for a coup and explain the situation. Erwin was probably crazy enough to go for it, right?

Nah, she’d need evidence. Proper evidence. Maybe Grisha’s journals? She could retrieve them from his basement during the Colossal Titan’s attack. That, on top of possibly having Historia unlock Eren’s memories if she needed to, and they’d probably believe her.

That would require her to arrive at Wall Maria before the invasion, which was in 845.

Lara had no idea what year it was currently, but she probably had around a decade before that came to pass, if she had to guess.

It would be imperative that she receive the power of the Warhammer Titan sometime before then. Without the ability of a titan shifter, she’d probably never even make it to Wall Maria, getting eaten by some random titan.

That meant sucking up to whichever Tybur currently held the power. Yeah, she could do that.

So arrive in Paradis in 845, join the 104th Training Regiment in 847, and sometime between then and graduation, convince Ymir, Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner to aid her. In 850, join the Survey Corps and enact a coup, putting Historia on the throne.

Then they could establish ties with Marley, and Paradis’ independence could be secured.

Lara glanced back down at her notebook, frowning.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” she mumbled.

She should go through all the titan shifters: Her, Eren, Ymir, Annie, Bertholdt, Reiner, Zek-

“Zeke!”

That’s right.

Zeke and his crazy euthanasia plan.

Well crap.

What was she supposed to do about that?

...

At age three, Lara finally began to learn more about her new world.

Three years old meant copious amounts of baby talk, something Lara let herself take joy in. It was amusing to speak only in literals, to insult people to their face under the guise of an ignorant toddler.

Willy was “Wiri”, her nanny was “Nana”, and her mother and father “Mam” and “Da” respectively. 

Actually, she had finally managed to discover her parents’ given names, her mother being Ingrid and her father being Johann. 

It didn’t exactly help prove anything, seeing as how the majority of the Tybur family went unnamed in the Attack on Titan manga, but it still felt like a victory to have learned a new thing related to her situation.

Lara also discovered that her family was not limited to just her parents and brother. She had an aunt, a severe woman named Agatha, who never smiled and seemed to disdain her very presence, practically fleeing the room whenever Lara stumbled across her while wandering the manor.

Aunt Agatha was suitably dubbed “Haggy”, a title which, when first heard, caused her cold facade to fail in the place of her horror.

Lara figured that she must be the current host of the Warhammer Titan. She was, after all, never seen in the official series, and someone had to have been eaten for canon Lara to inherit the power.

That line of thinking made her feel a bit guilty about the whole thing, and so Lara resolved to be a bit kinder to her aloof aunt.

Speaking more meant more practice at the new language of this world, which Lara assumed to be Eldian. She had read somewhere on the SnK wiki that Eldian was the national language of Marley, due to its long history with the Eldian empire, which sounded about right, though it foretold future lessons on actual Marleyan that Lara dreaded.

At the very least, she would be able to speak the language within the walls of Paradis.

Willy read to her every night, now, practically replacing her nanny for several hours. It was cute to see how eager he was to spend time with her, and these sessions allowed Lara to get her first glimpse at the written language of this new world.

It… looked like a cluster of scribbles made up of squares and rectangles, all connected into one long line. Lara had seen the writing system in the anime, and it had looked nothing like that, so she assumed that this script was some sort of “high Marleyan alphabet”, not used by Eldians or common people. Or perhaps Paradis predated the invention of it.

Still, though, she did her best to follow along with the language, trying to piece together words over Willy’s shoulder every time he sat her down for story time.

And then her indoctrination began.

“And then the great hero Helos thrust his spear into the jaw of The Devil of All Earth, causing him to come crashing down,” Willy read, turning the book around to show a picture of a golden man perched on the head of a dead titan. “And with the help of the Tybur family, our family, he overthrew the wicked Eldian empire and brought peace to the land!”

He smiled awkwardly. “Isn’t that amazing? Our family is the reason that Marley is free.”

Oh, Willy. She wondered if he had been read this same story when he was her age.

Marley really was cruel, disguising propaganda as children’s stories. It turned her stomach, how many people blindly believed these lies.

“What happened to the Eldians?” Lara asked, though she already knew the answer. Knew it better than Willy, even.

Willy shook his head. “The king of the Eldians, King Fritz, abandoned his people and hid on the island of Paradis, leaving most Eldians to die. He erected three walls around his castle, Maria, Rose, and Sina, so that he would never have to answer for his crimes.” Willy looked forlornly down at the picture book. “And in his last words to the world, he threatened to lay waste to all nations if anyone should ever attack his kingdom.” 

Yeah, pretty close to the story she knew. She supposed that this proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was exactly where she suspected she was. It didn’t feel good, being right.

“What about the Eldians inside?” Lara pressed. “Were they trapped in the walls with the king?”

“Paradis is an island of devils, Lara,” Willy responded. “Don’t feel pity for them. They abandoned us alongside their king to live in a false paradise.” He closed the book. “Our family was the only one to stand up against King Fritz. That makes us the only innocent Eldians.”

It sounded like he was reciting someone else’s words. Maybe he was. Maybe he had also asked that question when he was first told the story of the Great Titan War.

“No. I don’t believe that.”

Willy looked up at her, startled. “What?”

Maybe there was still hope for him. Willy had never been a bad character; if anything, he had been one of the kinder Marleyans, trying to help the Eldians of Marley by demonizing the Eldians of Paradis. His heart had been in the right place, he just needed a little bit of a push...

She took a deep breath. “Just because their ancestors did bad things, that doesn’t make all Eldians bad people.”

She needed to get through to him.

Lara looked Willy in the eye, only for him to turn away from her.

“There are some things that you just can’t forgive, Lara.”

He sighed, and raised his hand to ruffle her hair. “You’ll understand when you’re older, don’t worry. But for now,” and Willy’s expression turned serious, eyes boring into her, “don’t tell anyone about what you said to me.”

She frowned, but nodded unhappily.

Not yet. She’d get him to come around, eventually, but she couldn’t undo a decade of brainwashing with just a few words.

“Thank you,” he smiled. “People don’t like others questioning this stuff, especially Mother and Father.”

Yeah, she bet so.

“But why not, Willy?” Lara asked. “What’s wrong with asking questions?” What’s wrong with having independent thought? It makes it harder for you to be controlled.

“People are just touchy about it, that’s all,” he grinned weakly. “Don’t worry about it too much, ok?”

“Ok.”

“You promise?”

“I promise, big brother.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit longer than the other ones, but I really didn't want to break it up into individual parts, so I hope you don't mind. I'll try to post the next chapter some time next weekend.

Eventually, Lara got permission to leave the manor.

“What do you think of the city, Lara?” Willy asked from his spot next to her in the automobile. He was dressed casually, though still sported a blazer and thick woolen pants. Lara herself was clothed in a light blue dress, the piece of clothing with the least amount of ruffles she could find in her closet. They both blended in rather well with the citizens roaming around the streets.

Liberio was both exactly what she expected and nothing like it at all. The architecture was of traditional English origin, with red brick houses and busy street corners, and the level of technology similar to that of the 1920s. During their jaunt through the city, she had seen movie theatres, parks, and factories, all seemingly from an era that she had never experienced.

It actually kind of looked like something out of a WWI movie, though Lara had yet to see any flapper girls or saxophone-toting street performers. It was actually kind of nice, being able to recognize aspects of this new country that felt familiar to her.

“It’s interesting,” she replied, taking a moment to smile at her brother before going back to staring out the window of the moving vehicle. “But where exactly are we going?”

Willy answered her smile with one of his own.

“I figured we should do something exciting for your first foray into town,” he stated, looking proudly at her, “so I decided to take you to a history museum.”

Most people wouldn’t consider that exciting, silly. Though maybe Willy had picked up on her thirst for information, and thought she would enjoy it.

Lara had been scavenging for scraps related to her situation, this world, everything, and had managed to learn a fair bit.

The year was 838, her having been born August 23 of 834. Apparently, the Tyburs actually lived in Liberio, their manor situated near the center of town, with the intermittent zone located on the outskirts. Her parents were considered “benefactors” of the city, which was really just a nice way of saying that they owned everything, including the people.

The details of Marley, such as its military aspect and sociopolitical situation, were things that Lara had had less luck with discovering, though hopefully this museum trip would shed some light as to what she could expect from the empire in the future.

The more she knew about the enemy, the better chance she had at countering them.

That was really sweet of Willy, though, to notice her interest like that. Lara intertwined one of his hands with her own.

“Thanks, Willy,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. Her brother squeezed back in response, quickly replacing his look of surprise with one of contentment.

“Of course, little sister.”

They sat in comfortable silence, Lara intently observing her surroundings with Willy occasionally pointing out spots of interest. He drew her attention to several large steel bridges situated around the city, a massive boat resting at the pier, and even the military headquarters (the location of which Lara mentally made note of).

Of course, Willy had chosen a route that stayed far away from the intermittent camp. There was not an armband, white or otherwise, in sight, which Lara found both depressing and unsurprising.

When they arrived at the museum, a man in a green suit greeted them at the entrance.

“You must be the Tybur children,” he said, tone sickenly sweet. “Please, follow me.”

The glorified bellhop led them into the building, bypassing the line of people outside entirely.

Lara supposed there were some perks to being from a powerful family.

The green suit guy guided them to the cloakroom, where both Willy and Lara checked in their coats. When a member of the staff went to give her the pass to take their coats back, Lara reached for it in turn, only to have the slip of paper snatched up by the chaperone.

“I’ll hold on to this for you.” The man’s smile looked almost painful. Lara let her hand drop in defeat.

The museum itself was large, larger even than the great hall in her family’s manor. In it, there were several skeletons on display, seemingly from various prehistoric creatures. The walls were lined with fossils and curious rocks, accompanied with small plaques reading out the display’s name and information.

A map of the building was hung on a nearby wall. Lara turned to look at it.

They were currently in the “Showroom”. To the left and right were “Early Life” and “Gem and Mineral Hall” respectively, and upstairs was “Ancient Artifacts” and “Titans”, those areas being divided into several different rooms.

Lara turned to Willy.

“I thought you said this was a history museum,” she asked, raising her eyebrow slightly.

Well, she supposed the history of the Earth counted, but that wasn’t really what she had been hoping to get out of this trip.

Willy looked down at her and smiled, eyes bright. “Yeah, natural history. Welcome to the Liberio Natural History Museum, home of over 100,000 fossils, rocks, and artifacts!” He turned back to the showroom, a look of pride on his face as he tugged her forward.

Willy darted around the showroom floor, oohing and aahing at the different displays.

Lara paused for a moment. This museum hadn’t been what she had expected, though the thought of comparing the world’s biogeological history with that of her own admittedly left her a bit excited.

She still probably wasn’t going to learn much of use here, though.

Right now, information gathering was of paramount importance. Operating in a foreign land was dangerous when you didn’t know the rules, and if she expected to overthrow a government then she damn well needed to know how it worked first. She knew that.

Lara let her eyes drift up to Willy, who was intently reading a nearby plaque belonging to a large nautilus-looking fossil.

He looked excited. More focused than she had ever seen him, and he was fawning over a creature that had been dead probably for thousands of years.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to just enjoy the day with her brother, could it? After all, she was just a child.

Lara trotted up to Willy, grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the display. He let out a cry of dismay, but she just giggled and flashed a smile, directing him towards the room on the right.

“C'mon, I wanna see the minerals first. We can look at dead things later.”

...

She started training with Agatha when she turned five.

Every morning before the sun was up, Lara would let herself be dragged outside to do stretches with her aunt. It had started out light, just some basic yoga, but she was five months in now and Agatha had given up going easy on her, nearly doubling the difficulty and duration of their sessions.

Lara had never been a very athletic person in her previous life, and as Lara Tybur she had spent the majority of her baby years in her room, progressing her studies and trying to make sense of this new and exciting world.

Basically, she was completely out of shape, and these morning stretching sessions were quite literally torture to her developing muscles.

She was getting better though. Slowly, so slowly that it was practically invisible, but it was progress nonetheless.

After stretching came running, starting with half a mile and increasing throughout the week. Lara recognized the importance of this, agreed with it even, but that didn’t make the activity any less grueling.

This morning was no different.

“50 meters left. Pick it up!” her aunt called out from in front of her. Sure enough, the end was in sight, a single wooden post sticking out of the ground 50m away.

The morning air was incredibly cold, the sun not having been in the sky long enough to warm it up. The year 839 had just started, her birthday having been five months ago in August.

There had been another awful party, packed with children from important families who her parents had tasked her with befriending. The night had been exceedingly long, filled with tedious talks and backhanded gossip as Lara worked to cut out a niche for herself.

As much as she hated gatherings, hated playing the socialite and forging good relations, Lara understood that it was incredibly important. The more friends she had, the better position she was in, and the less likely it would be for enemies to target her. Making friends was vital, and she had a long way to go before she felt comfortable carrying out her plan.

After all, it was the Tyburs who really ruled Marley, and she had some big footsteps to fill.

Her brother was still better at it than her, though.

Willy took to parties like a fish to water, and if Lara didn’t know for certain that he hated them nearly as much as she did, she would have said that he belonged there. He was a natural at getting others to open up about themselves, playing each guest like a fiddle. It was honestly a bit awe-inspiring, to see Willy at work on the dance floor with people tripping over themselves to please him.

“Wait up!”

Speaking of Willy.

Her 15 year old brother panted behind them, desperately running forward to catch up. Willy had requested to join her morning training exercises, citing something about it being “his job to look after her”. Lara had shrugged it off at the time, figuring that he would get bored and give up within a week, but that was November and he had still, somehow, managed to persevere into the new year.

That didn’t change the fact that he was bad at running. Really bad at running, worse than she had been when she first started.

Lara had progressed to the point that she could run a half mile with little difficulty, but Willy, every single session, never failed to end up a sweaty, exhausted mess. It was pretty sad, actually, that a 5 year old girl could out-run this 15 year old boy, no matter how short Willy’s legs may be.

She loved her brother, she really did, but his actions truly baffled her sometimes.

Her turning 5 also invited her parents to begin sending tutors her way.

Lara now endured daily reading lessons, focusing on both the Marleyan and Eldian alphabets. Then, in the afternoon, a specialized tutor would come to give lessons, the subjects differing depending on the day.

Monday afternoons were devoted to history lessons, Tuesday to world geography, Wednesday to mathematics, Thursday to music and art, and Friday to etiquette. History and geography were fascinating, with her finally being able to discover the true nature of the world she had ended up in, though she was forced to take all history lessons with a large helping of salt.

The world map of Attack on Titan was apparently just an upside-down version of her own, which Lara hadn’t known till she was shown an image of it by her tutor. Equating this new map to her old one, the events of the story were based in Madagascar, and she would be located somewhere in Tanzania or Mozambique, now Liberio in this new world.

It was interesting, but didn’t quite add up. The climate of her home was nothing like that of Africa, and she was pretty sure Madagascar didn’t have the snowfall seen in Paradis. More likely, the landmasses had flipped, but the axis of the planet had stayed the same. Some kind of inverted Pangaea? Lara wasn’t really sure.

For her other subjects, math was math, and she had retained most of her equation skills from her past life, breezing through the early units with ease.

Etiquette was a nightmare, as Lara had been blessed with the cruelest of tutors, a woman who seemed to delight in disciplining her for her mistakes, whacking her knuckles with a fan every time she went to pick up the wrong fork or some such. It also included dancing, which Lara actually learned with Willy, seeing as he was short enough to be her dancing partner. Like other skills society cared about, Willy excelled at it, twirling around the dance floor, while she remained grudgingly adequate.

Thursday’s lessons were her favorite, personally. They were probably the least practical, seeing as even etiquette played a part in furthering her agenda, but Lara couldn’t help herself. She adored music. The art aspect was entertaining enough, though it was really lessons on art history and style rather than the practical painting she had been expecting, but oh, music…

There had apparently been some sort of renaissance period in this world after the defeat of Eldia, as there were near thousands of classical vocal pieces for her to learn that dated back about a century.

God knew how singing was supposed to help her kill titans, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

All of that on top of her physical education, and Lara was well on her way to being suitably prepared to take up the family mantle as the Warhammer Titan.

And that was the heart of the issue, right there.

Her aunt hated her.

Lara glanced over at Agatha, having finished her cooldown stretches.

It seemed as if she had despised her right from the moment she was born, though Lara had absolutely no clue what she had done to slight the woman as to earn her ire. Even after (probably being coerced) to teach her, she still wouldn’t engage in any sort of unnecessary contact between them, avoiding her like the plague when she wasn’t forced to be at Lara’s side.

She probably resented her, probably knew that she would be chosen to take her place.

Honestly, Lara couldn’t blame her. It’s hard to get along with the person you know will have to kill you.

It didn’t make day-to-day activities any less painful, though. This needed to stop.

As Willy came to a halt beside her, finally finished with running and looking much worse the wear for it, Agatha stood from her place at the post and began to walk away, not even throwing a glance over her shoulder at the children she was leaving behind.

For the first time in her several months of running, Lara followed the woman, taking care not to be overtly obvious about it, worried her aunt would make a break for it if she noticed. Agatha led her around to the side door of the stables, where several of the family’s horses were kept. Horse riding lessons were actually supposed to start next month, something that Lara had been eagerly looking forward to.

Agatha entered the stables, and Lara ran to catch the door before it could close.

Her aunt turned around, a look of unpleasant surprise on her face. She opened her mouth, probably to make some excuse so that she could flee, but Lara beat her to it.

“Can I please speak with you, Aunt Agatha? It’s important.”

The woman looked at her, obviously searching for a way out of the conversation before letting her shoulders drop in defeat.

“Of course, Lara,” she sighed. “What do you want to talk about?” Her eyes refused to leave the ground, and she shifted uncomfortably on one foot.

“You despise me.”

That certainly got a reaction out of her, causing Agatha to splutter in surprise. She lifted her eyes from the ground at the action, and for the first time she could remember, Lara made actual eye contact with her aunt.

“Whatever gave you that impression?” she demanded, looking quite put upon, as if it was Lara’s fault and not hers that their relationship was so superficial.

Honestly, what was her problem?

“You avoid me. You flee at the sight of me, and can’t stand to be in a room with me,” Lara started, trying to keep her tone calm. She wasn’t making accusations, she was stating facts. “Lord, you look like you’re about to run away from me. Why on earth do you hate me so much?”

Agatha stopped fidgeting at that, looking at Lara like she was seeing her for the first time. Her frown turned anguished, and she bit her lip in an attempt to stave off the words.

“I don’t hate you.”

Lara raised an eyebrow. She gave her aunt a look that made it very clear she didn’t believe that one bit.

“I really don’t.”

Agatha sighed and all the tension the confrontation had brought on seemed to drain out of her.

“This isn’t the place to be having this conversation,” she mumbled, looking around at the stable entryway. Her eyes narrowed, and she nodded her head once. “Please, come with me back to my room. We can talk there.”

She extended her hand towards Lara in an offering, and, hesitantly, Lara took it.

She led the pair back up and through the manor, winding along its dark hallways.

She brought Lara to a set of stairs the girl had never seen before, leading down into a basement and an ornate oak door. She retrieved a key from her pocket and slipped it into the keyhole, unlocking the door and entering the room. Lara followed behind her.

Agatha’s room was nice, especially so for being located underneath the manor. If Lara had to compare it to her own, she’d say it was even nicer, covered in fine draperies and filled with lit candles.

It was peculiar, actually, that Agatha’s residence was situated so deeply underground. If Lara had to guess, she imagined it was some sort of preventative measure to keep her from accidentally transforming, though perhaps the intent was not as benign as that. Nicely decorated or not, a prison was a prison. Was this the Tybur’s way of keeping their weapon in check?

No, Lara was probably overthinking it.

The woman closed the door behind her and sat down on the large bed located in the center of the room. She patted the spot next to her, and Lara joined her on the piece of furniture.

She began. “What do you know about our family’s history?” Agatha asked, sending a glance at the young girl.

Quite a bit, actually, but saying as much wouldn’t be very wise.

“Willy read me a story about the Great Titan War, once,” Lara offered, “and I’ve studied it a bit with my history tutor.” Was this conversation going where she thought it was going?

Agatha sighed. “Yes, there is quite a bit written in Marleyan history books about the titans,” she said in a conceding manner. “Did you learn about our family?”

Lara smiled in response. “Yeah, the Tyburs teamed up with Helos to topple the Eldian empire,” she recited, “and they gathered seven of the nine titan shifters to defeat them.”

“Very good,” her aunt said, offering Lara the first praise she had ever received from the woman. So many firsts today, huh?

“Do you know what happened to those seven titans?”

Lara nodded, responding “they’re still under Marleyan control, right? And our family has one of them.” Was she going to admit it?

She let out a sad laugh. “Correct again, Lara,” she smiled. “And I’m the Tybur titan shifter.”

The girl let herself stare at Agatha, unsure exactly how to respond. Of course, she wasn’t supposed to know, but she wasn’t sure she could feign surprise about the fact.

Ah, what the hell.

“I kinda guessed that, actually,” Lara admitted, leaving her aunt a bit stunned. “Mother and Father are too old, and Willy is much too young. It really only makes sense that it’s you, if they wanted to keep the power within the immediate family.”

Agatha paused a moment to observe her, almost as if she was trying to read her mind, before sighing yet again and flopping back on the bed.

“You’re a smart girl,” she said, “much smarter than I was at your age.”

Lara let herself stay silent. Let her believe what she wanted to.

“That’s why they want you to inherit the power next. Your mom and dad.” The woman looked over at her now, eyes filled with sorrow. “They want you to take this power from me when my time is up, and become the weapon of the Tybur family.”

That was good. Lara had been sort of counting on receiving the Warhammer Titan, and it would have really thrown a wrench in her plans if her parents had decided to give it to her brother instead or something.

“I don’t want that to happen,” Agatha revealed. “I’ve been arguing with your father about it ever since your fifth birthday, but he refuses to listen to me.” She frowned and looked away.

“But why wouldn’t you want me to inherit your titan?” Lara asked, confused. “I mean, I understand that you wouldn’t want to give it to me if you disliked me, but… you said that wasn’t the reason you avoid me.”

“Because the power is cursed.”

She did her best to look surprised.

“People who inherit the power of a titan are cursed to only live for thirteen more years. If you were to receive it, you would never be able to grow old, never be able to have a family,” Agatha winced, turning to face her once again. “And I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Oh.

That… wasn’t what Lara had been expecting at all. She was quite touched, actually: in her own way, her aunt had been trying to protect her. It made her happy that there was an adult in her life who cared for her enough to try and save her from the doomed fate of a titan shifter.

But she couldn’t afford that sort of sentiment.

“...I’d love to be able to grow old,” Lara started, looking up at the ceiling. “I’d love to start a family. I’d love to have the next fifty years of my life to look forward to,” she smiled wistfully. “But, even if that’s what I want, even if I’d love nothing more than to live out that dream…”

She turned to look back at her aunt.

“I have to inherit the power of the Warhammer Titan.”

Agatha just looked at her.

“I have no other choice.”

“You always have a choice,” she exclaimed, shooting up from the bed and clasping their hands together. “You always can say no. You don’t need to take this burden on yourself. It’s not the end of the world if the power goes to Willy.”

But it was.

It was the end of the world if the Warhammer Titan went to Willy.

“Aunt Agatha.”

The woman froze, looking down at her.

Lara was smiling. A great big smile that stretched across her face, yet was almost mournful. Her eyes were a bit wet.

“Thank you for caring so much,” she said, rubbing her aunt’s knuckles. “I’m grateful that there’s someone like you in my life.” Her eyes went misty for a second before snapping back into focus.

“But I’ve made my choice.”

Lara looked her in the eye, a solemn expression now on her face.

“I’ll be the one to inherit your power.”

Agatha opened her mouth to argue, desperately wanting to change the girl’s mind, but the look on Lara’s face stopped her. She knew that look. That’s what her face looked like when she had inherited her titan, all those years ago. She could cry, throw a fit, beg and plead, but there was no way she could break this little girl’s resolve.

Alright then. If that’s what Lara wanted, she would accept it.

She breathed out and flopped back on the bed, letting silence take hold of the room.

A couple moments later, Lara followed her example, laying down next to her, staring at the ceiling as if it held all of life’s answers.

“…”

“How many years do you have left?”

“... four.”

“...”

“...”

“So I’ll live to be 22, huh?”

“...I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been absolutely blown away by the response to this fic. Over 120 hits for the first update? I can’t help but be surprised, though it makes me really happy to see people enjoying what I’ve written. Thanks guys!

Agatha treated her much better, after that.

That’s not to say that she had been necessarily cruel before, but Lara’s aunt hadn’t exactly been supportive of her training, preferring a much more hands-off approach..

Maybe it was because she felt guilty, preparing a young child to take on her burden. Maybe she had convinced herself that if Lara wasn’t ready, she would be spared the Curse of Ymir.

Whatever the case, Agatha had now seemingly let go of all her inhibitions, embracing her duty as mentor.

By the time Lara was six, they had moved on to actual combat training, both woman and girl devoting several hours per day to practice.

She was shown several types of martial arts, taught to defend herself from an attacker twice her size, to break a headlock and disarm a knife user. Everything was practical, and Agatha made sure to drill the information into her head.

Perhaps it was a bit cruel, teaching a young girl to kill and not be killed, but Lara didn’t have time for doing things the “proper” way. She had to learn these skills so that she could survive. Taking the easy way out would only serve to leave her unprepared.

And her aunt seemed to understand that.

Agatha didn’t shy away from being rough, barely pulling her punches, and Lara appreciated it. Not being taken seriously wasn’t going to benefit her in the long run.

Even if each session left her with a vast array of mottled bruises.

There were never any significant injuries, of course. Her aunt wasn’t just using her as a punching bag, and always stopped before her attacks went too far. It was far more likely that Lara just bruised easily, being both young and female. Something about girls having less collagen fibers and more fragile blood vessels? Or maybe it just ran in the family. There could be several reasons, honestly, but it didn’t matter that much one way or the other.

Still, Lara had taken to wearing much more concealing clothing as to not give her brother a heart attack. Dresses with long sleeves and high collars were the most she could get away with, but it still served to keep the byproducts of Aunt Agatha’s teachings a secret.

Though Willy knew of her training with their aunt, he had opted out of participating after Agatha threw him across the room on day one. He now stuck to only joining their morning running sessions.

Lara could only imagine the fit he would have if he realized just how bruised her lessons often left her.

Willy had grown to be incredibly protective of her, almost overly so. He refused to let her leave the manor without a chaperone, preferably himself, even if she was just taking a walk through the woods that surrounded their property. It had turned her already stifling family life into a near-imprisonment, and though Lara knew he only meant well by it, it frustrated her to no end.

He probably had the right idea, though. They were Tyburs, after all, and she was never truly safe, even in his company.

She tried to ignore the pistol he kept on him at all times.

Still though, her lessons had been going smoothly. Other than the combat training, Agatha had also been instructing her on horse riding and sword fighting, both subjects that Lara had specifically requested. She had figured that they would come in handy, even if her aunt thought her ambitions strange.

Horse riding was actually incredibly enjoyable, though a good portion of it entailed grooming and upkeep, resulting in her spending many long hours in the stables, learning the different names of the tack.

The bridle, the girth, the saddle blanket, the bit: Aunt Agatha taught her how to put them on and take them off, as well as how to pick hooves and hose a horse down.

The horse she had been assigned was named Harbin, a spritely young Appaloosa that was just short enough for her to ride, though Lara still needed a hand with mounting the stallion.

Though he was a tad too excitable, Harbin made for a good mount, able to obey and even intuit commands. Agatha had chosen well.

As far as sword fighting went, Lara was not nearly as naturally inclined as she had hoped,

The medieval-brand techniques that her aunt taught her were nothing like the fencing that she had expected, both brutal and deadly efficient in their swings. There was no room for flair, no swoops or graceful jabs, just deadly intent and abominable force, designed to end the encounter as quickly as possible.

The style did away with all notions of defense, made to rush and overpower the opponent. Lara had no idea how she was going to learn such a thing.

After all, she was a skinny, short girl with noodle arms that had barely increased in muscle mass even with the copious amounts of combat training. How her aunt expected her to overpower her opponent, especially if that opponent was a full grown man, was beyond Lara.

Eventually, she sat down Agatha and asked outright, only to be laughed at.

“You don’t need to worry about strength, right now,” her aunt affirmed. “That will come when you inherit my titan.”

She ruffled Lara’s hair. “This style of sword fighting was made for titan shifters, whose muscles are naturally stronger than that of a normal man’s.” Agatha’s eyes glinted conspiratorially. “When you take my power, you will also take my strength. All you need to focus on now is learning the moves, so that you can perform them later when you are stronger.”

And that was that.

In retrospect, Lara figured that being trained to fight with a sword probably wouldn’t help her kill titans either, but she still valued the lessons.

One subject that she didn’t specifically request was poleaxes.

Agatha informed her that while her sword fighting was good for close range, one-on-one fights, poleaxes were best for situations in which she would need to keep her distance, especially if she was facing multiple opponents.

Poleaxes, like halberds, were basically a medieval lovechild of a spear, axe, and pole. They sported a large curved blade on the far end, as well as a spear tip. Poleaxes were powerful weapons, used by knights in olden times against both infantry and cavalry. According to Agatha, such a thing was perfect for her titan form, as the Warhammer Titan was capable of manifesting weapons out of extremely hard crystal.

Nevermind that Lara could barely lift the weapon, much less swing it at an enemy.

To be fair, she should have been anticipating lessons in warhammers, which poleaxes, while definitely not the same, sort of fulfilled a similar role. Kinda.

So now she was the Poleaxe Titan, she supposed. Lara chose to keep that thought to herself.

It was probably good to be varied when it came to fighting styles, anyways. Being skilled in both armed and unarmed combat could only help her, even if she wouldn’t have the chance to fully utilize the former for several more years.

Lara Tybur from the Attack on Titan manga had actually wielded a proper warhammer, which she personally thought looked overly cumbersome. Blunt force won out over a sharp edge in some situations, sure, but it wasn’t nearly as useful when it came to killing things. Though if she ever had to face Reiner in his titan form, she would certainly have better luck trying to smash his armor rather than cut through it...

Well, she’d just have to be prepared for anything.

* * *

It was 841, and Lara had a plan.

“Hey Willy,” she cried, “I want to go somewhere!” She tugged on her brother’s hand, pulling him away from his breakfast of eggs and sausage and towards the main hall of the manor.

It was a beautiful day, the sun shining through the grand windows of the building and illuminating the two children. Spring in the Marleyan continent was a grand affair, the cold weather giving way to clear skies and blooming foliage. It was the perfect time to enjoy a day outside.

Lara had been thinking for a while now, scheming about the best way to go about achieving her goals, and had arrived at a solution that she believed was rather well thought out.

Willy looked at her, overt fondness in his expression. She often made requests like this, asking to be taken out to a movie or to go shopping along the streets of Liberio. She was, after all, a young child, and couldn’t be contained by the walls of their home.

He chuckled and smiled indulgently. “Alright, sister,” he said, “where do you want to go?”

Lara grinned at him.

“The Intermittent Zone!”

* * *

Lara doggedly followed Willy as he paced down the hall, cherubic face set into an unflattering frown. He began to walk faster, picking up his pace in an attempt to shake his little sister off his tail, but the smaller girl easily kept pace with him, tugging insistently on his sleeve.

“Cmon, don’t run away from me,” Lara implored, “I just want to talk to you.”

Willy glared heatedly down at her, stalling his movements and bracing himself for the coming argument.

“There is no conceivable way that you could convince me to take you to the Liberio Intermittent Zone,” he groused, eyes narrowing in displeasure. “That is no place for a young child, much less the daughter of the most powerful family in Marley.”

Wow, Lara had never seen her brother this unhappy with her. It hurt her heart a bit, having to push at him when he was in this bad of a mood, but she needed to get to the Intermittent Zone, and she couldn’t let Willy stop her.

“You say that it is unsuitable for children, and yet thousands of them live there,” Lara pointed out, putting her hands on her hips. “Are the Tyburs not to be held accountable for what goes on within those walls? We are responsible for Liberio, a burden that I will eventually have to bear as well, and yet you would deny me the chance to see with my own eyes the conditions of our kingdom?”

Willy huffed. “While it is true that you stand to inherit our family’s legacy,” he conceded, matching her own confrontational stance with one of his own, “you are not expected to do so at such a young age. There is no need for you to visit the Intermittent Zone now. Perhaps when you are older.”

But she didn’t have time to wait until she was older. In a few years, she would inherit the power of the Warhammer Titan and set off for Paradis, and she still had so much she had to accomplish before leaving the safety of her family’s influence.

Having made his point, Willy turned to walk away, steely gaze fixed straight ahead, not paying her any mind. This was the aristocrat, the nobleman, the person who ordered the deaths of thousands of Eldians out of convenience.

Lara didn’t like this side of her brother, fostered during his years of adolescence by their cutthroat parents. It was a cold front, void of the love and compassion that she had so freely received in her younger years. The Willy in front of her now was a caricature of the one she knew, childish naïveté and innocence having been stripped away to adapt to the pressure of being the oldest son of “the most powerful family in Marley.”

And he was only 16. Gods.

Part of Lara wanted to cry, wanted to leap forward, arms outstretched, and comfort her brother; tell him that “you don’t have to do this, you don’t have to be like this, it’s ok to be a child just a little while longer, please just stay the person you were before.”

But that would just make her a hypocrite. At least, more of a hypocrite than she already was.

Still though, she wouldn’t let Willy shut himself off from her. She needed him, both as an ally she could rely on, and as a brother who accepted her just the way she was, quirks and all. These walls that he had constructed were new, only half-finished, but in time they would become an impenetrable fortress that even she would not be able to break down. Left to stew in his loneliness, Lara would probably lose all hope of appealing to Willy’s compassionate side when the time came for her to reveal the truth of Eldia. If she started a war, then Willy would become her enemy, and Lara couldn’t let that happen.

She had to get through to him.

Lara tightly grasped the retreating Willy’s hand, squeezing it like a lifeline.

“...”

“Please don’t do this.” Her eyes fell to the floor when her brother didn’t respond, opting to regard her in silence.

“Don’t shut me out, not like everyone else,” Lara pleaded, gripping his trapped hand even tighter. “We’re siblings. You don’t need to act like someone you’re not when you’re around me.”

She looked at him imploringly. “I know that you’re trying to protect me. That’s why you don’t want me to go. Every time I step outside this compound, I put myself in danger. But, Willy,” she locked eyes with him, “There’s so much about this world that’s wrong, and if I stay here forever, here where I am warm and safe, then nothing will ever get better.”

“My age doesn’t matter. My gender doesn’t matter. My race doesn’t matter. I’m going to fix this rotten world, starting with helping the Eldians.”

Lara let a soft smile grace her face.

“And, you know what? I think you want that too.”

She stepped closer to her brother, still frozen and expressionless.

“You can say all you want about how the Eldians are dangerous, that they deserve their punishments, but I know you, Willy. You don’t believe that drivel, either.”

Lara let her free hand drift up to his face, brushing his cheek softly. Willy exhaled, but didn’t make a move to turn away.

“I think you’ve known all along that society is wrong, that our family is wrong, right?” She traced her brother’s features with her thumb.

“And deep down, past all that fear and brainwashing, you want to do something about it too, don’t you?”

She smiled, eyes a bit wet.

“You’re a good person, Willy, and nothing, absolutely nothing that you say to me will change that.” Lara finally submitted to her desire, embracing her brother and burying her face in his chest.

“There is nothing in this world that can make me stop loving you.”

A moment passed, and then two skinny arms lifted themselves to wrap around her.

“... I know.”

Lara laughed, tears now freely flowing, and replied “Good.”

And that was all that needed to be said.

* * *

Willy didn’t quite know what to make of his sister.

It’s not that he didn't love her: he did, more than anything else in the world, more than his very own life, but though he accepted her, that didn’t make him ignorant to all her oddities.

Lara had always been unnaturally intelligent, calculating and analytical in a way that Willy had never seen in a child before. She thrived on information, had endeavored to learn more and more about the world through the small glimpses that he provided her. Bedtime story books eventually became bedtime history books, and basic language lessons became linguistic journeys as Lara breezes through text after text, almost as if possessed.

Willy didn’t know what she had been looking for, if indeed there was a goal at all behind her searching, or if she would ever truly be satisfied with her level of knowledge.

This bibliomania eventually drew the attention of their parents who, while not exactly very hands-on in their child rearing, became very involved in Lara’s education after they discovered her trying to parse through Willy’s small collection of philosophy journals.

They pushed her to take more lessons, learn more and more about every topic under the sun so they could brag about it to their social circles, showing off Lara like she was a prized poodle.

That was probably when she sealed her fate as a Titan shifter.

Willy knew that their aunt was the current vessel of the Warhammer Titan, and had always assumed throughout his childhood that he would be the one to inherit her power. He hadn’t exactly been thrilled about it, but he had accepted this inevitability well enough, waiting for the day when that power was passed along to him.

But Willy was the oldest son of the Tybur family, and stood in line to take over their assets after his father reached a certain age. He was expected to live a long, busy life managing the family interests. He should have known that he would not be selected to carry on the legacy of the Tybur titan shifters.

Then his parents had Lara.

A brilliant girl possessing a critical mind was the perfect host of the Warhammer Titan. That’s why Aunt Agatha had been selected, all those years ago: she fit the ideal role of weapon. Women were less useful to the family after all, only able to be married off to secure connections with other powers, as they were unable to take any powerful position in the government. When his parents saw Lara that day, pouring over books three times her reading level, they must have been delighted.

Willy had not been.

His sister had already seemed so burdened, carrying an invisible weight on her shoulders whose source he could never determine. Lara walked around the halls of their manor like the fate of the world depended on her, like she was Atlas, responsible for holding up the Earth.

She hid it, of course, but Willy had been taught how to read people from a very young age. He saw through her facade of childishness and right into her soul, so much older than he had wanted to believe. Gods, at that age he had been playing with mud, and yet his sister spoke with the eloquence of an old man. He didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or impressed.

Lara didn’t deserve to have anything added to that burden.

Eventually, Willy confronted their aunt about it.

“Don’t make Lara the next Warhammer Titan,” he had demanded. “There’s no need for her to sacrifice her future like that.”

Agatha had just stared at him solemnly, eyes knowing.

“She doesn’t want to be protected,” she had replied, shaking her head. “She has already made up her mind. She will be the next vessel.”

But that wasn’t what Willy had wanted to hear.

“She doesn’t know what she wants,” he had roared, “She’s just a child!”

And his aunt just stood there, unyielding.

“That girl,” she whispered, “was never allowed to be a child.”

And then she walked away, leaving Willy to his misplaced anger.

Agatha had been right, of course. This kind of life didn’t allow for innocence, didn’t permit childish weakness. Willy knew that, he knew that, but he had always wanted different for Lara. His sister had deserved better.

“Never again,” he had swore, “I won’t allow this cycle of children becoming adults too fast to continue.”

His children, when he eventually had children, would never be subjected to this lifestyle. They would live free from family burdens, from the political machinations that his and his sister’s lives had been steeped in.

But it was too late to save Lara. Perhaps it always was. Now, the only thing that Willy could do was support her, try his best to ease her mysterious burdens the way only a brother could.

After all, they only had each other.

On the day she was born, Lara didn’t cry.

He remembered it just like it was yesterday, holding her tiny body in his arms, wrapped silently in her red blanket while his mother demanded to know why she was so quiet, why she was not crying, was there something wrong with her?

The fear that he had felt in that hospital room, the terror at the thought that his sister might not have been born right, that she might not survive to grow older- that feeling never really went away, even after so many years had passed. Every time Lara would leave the manor, whether to explore Liberio or to train with their aunt, that little fear came back, making him wonder “what if she didn’t come back?”

He knew that he was stifling her, that she found his concern to be troublesome. Lara was independent and self assured in a way that spoke of a lifetime of experience. Never, not once, had he seen her struck by the fear for her safety that so constantly plagued him.

But in that quiet hospital room, while their mother was fretting and the nurses were scurrying about, Willy had looked down at his baby sister cradled in his arms, expected her to be silent as death and unmoving like the stillborns he had heard the doctors talk about, only to be met with a wide smile.

Lara, not even five minutes old, opened her eyes and gave him a gummy grin. Her face had been alight, full of the joy of a happy baby, and her silver eyes twinkled in amusement as she let out a quiet coo.

Willy had stretched out one of his fingers to tap her nose, almost checking to see if she was truly awake, and at this action Lara had let out a giggle.

It was at that moment that he knew that he would do anything for her, this impossible bundle of joy that Willy had held in his arms. Whether that meant laying down his life for her safety, sacrificing himself so that she could remain unharmed, or going to war with the entire world, faced by an innumerable amount of opponents.

He would do absolutely anything.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to realize just how important a beta is. I must have read over and revised this chapter twenty times, and I'm still not sure I caught all the grammatical errors that are present in it. If you happen to notice some funky spelling or something, go ahead and leave a comment so I can fix it!

The Liberio Intermittent Zone was located on the outer edges of the city, barricaded in by a large wall that stood almost ten meters high. It wasn’t incredibly far away from the Tybur manor, all things considered, but Willy still insisted that they take a private car.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Lara’s brother muttered, curling up in his seat and glancing worriedly out the cab window. He was obviously nervous, tapping his foot to a staccato rhythm on the floor and running his hand through his long gold-spun hair.

Lara wondered if this was the first time Willy had ever gone directly against the will of their parents. Surely he must have had some rebellious phase in his youth, she mused, though she couldn’t recall having ever noticed it. Perhaps he was just a late bloomer, and Lara was helping him engage in a little civil disobedience.

This would be good for him, then.

Lara nudged her brother lightly with her shoulder, giving him a small smile. “Don’t worry,” she assured him, “Everything will be alright.” Honestly, they were taking a big risk with their actions, and Lara was sure that Willy knew that, probably better than her. Still, this was something that she needed to do, and she was eternally grateful to her brother for supporting her.

The siblings were still dressed in their formal day-wear, which was sure to draw some eyes, but Lara thought it was actually a good thing that they stood out as obviously wealthy Marleyans. It would make getting into the zone all the easier, and would certainly back up any claim they made about their family name should they be forced to reveal themselves.

Though really, she’d prefer it if they could keep the Tybur name out of this excursion. Not only would they run the risk of their actions being reported to their parents, who did not deal with deviancy with anything less than an iron fist, but it just felt… dirty.

Just for a day, she’d like to pretend to be a normal person, just like how she used to be, a lifetime ago. Lara missed normality so much it ached sometimes.

Their private car quickly arrived at the gate to the Intermittent Zone, and Lara stepped out onto the cracked pavement, looking back at Willy who muttered something to the driver before slipping them a bank note and turning to join her. He gave her a weak smile.

The cab drove away, and the Tybur pair were left standing in front of the entrance.

“Are you sure about this?” Willy asked, voice quiet yet troubled. He glanced between her and the gate, not making a move in either direction.

“I am.” Lara said, meeting her brother’s eyes steadfastly. She had never been more certain of something in her admittedly short life.

He nodded and sighed, taking a moment to build up courage before grabbing her hand and walking towards the main entrance to the Liberio Intermittent Zone.

The gate was made of wire fencing, fashioned into two large doors guarded by a group of gun-toting soldiers. It was flanked on both sides by watchtowers, each equipped with artillery. Lara noticed that the weapons were currently aimed inside the walls, rather than out towards them. All in all, it made an imposing sight.

Willy strode up to the wall like it was nothing, wearing the mask of a charming nobleman. He smiled disarmingly at the guards, looking as if he had every right to be there.

“Hello there,” her brother greeted the soldiers brightly, aiming his blinding smile towards the group of men. Lara tucked herself behind him, not wanting to interfere with the conversation.

“My name is Willy, and this is Lara,” he introduced them, gesturing to her small figure. “Our father works as a public security officer at the Warrior’s headquarters, and today my little sister absolutely insisted that we visit him,” he made a show of rolling his eyes fondly, patting her head. Lara shrank at the attention of the guards, averting her gaze. She didn’t want them looking at her.

Willy chuckled at her reaction and turned back to the men. “I know that it’s not official government business, but do you think you could let us in?”

…Even with her brother’s easy charm and acting skills, that was a pretty weak story. Lara worried that it wouldn’t be good enough. This wasn’t an amusement park they were trying to enter, after all, but a government facility. Surely, surely they had better security than that?

The soldiers took in his nicely-tailored suit and shiny black shoes, one in particular eying the silver pocket watch that dangled from his shirt pocket. Willy practically screamed “elite” in his getup, and though it made Lara uncomfortable to be looked at like a piece of meat, she knew that their wealth would be respected here. Marleyans were so concerned with superiority, after all.

The guard closest to them, who was dressed in a bit of regalia that probably marked him as the head officer, matched Willy’s smile with one of his own and waved them in. The large gate doors slid open, and Lara and her brother were given visitor’s badges designating them as Marleyan guests of the zone.

Just like that, they were in.

Seriously?

Lara had been so concerned, certain that she would need to weasel an official entrance permit out of her parents which, yeah right, was never going to happen. Were people just allowed to stroll in here?

It was a tad disturbing how easy it was for Marleyans to enter the zone, contrasted with how difficult it was for Eldians to leave. The guards hadn’t even looked at them twice, but aimed their guns towards the interior? What sort of double standard was that?

Lara resolved not to think about it too much.

She had seen pictures of the Liberio Intermittent Zone before, both from the manga and anime, and to her, that depiction was fairly spot on. The area in front of her was a tad more run down than the Marleyan section of the city, with dirt roads replacing the cracked cobblestone she was used to. The buildings were similarly cramped together, with very little space separating one house from another. Citizens wearing armbands walked the streets, most donning faded or patchworked clothes, though they were not necessarily dirty. Lara could smell bread being baked in one of the nearby stores.

It wasn’t quite the ghetto that she had been fearing, but it still was a far sight from the sparkling structures of the upper class sector.

Still though, the zone was homey. It reminded Lara of some of the German villages she had once visited on holiday in her previous life. The people here probably had a very strong sense of community, she mused, having had to endure the same hardships.

Willy tapped her on the shoulder, and Lara realized that she had been stopped in the middle of the road, taking in the view.

“Is this what you wanted to see?” he asked, guiding her to the sidewalk so as to not obstruct the flow of traffic. People were blatantly staring at them, probably not used to having Marleyan visitors walking their streets (and such well-dressed ones at that). Willy met their stares, and the onlookers quickly dispersed, not wanting to cause trouble.

“Part of it, but not all.” Lara replied. She began to walk along the sidewalk, Willy quickly joining her at her side.

The pair of siblings strolled down the street, keeping away from the larger groups of people. Lara let her eyes drift over the buildings, the dusty storefronts and dilapidated porches. It was a nice day, and simply travelling the zone was pleasant. She looked up to her brother, who seemed similarly at peace.

Welp, here goes nothing. It’s showtime.

Lara took in a deep breath.

She looked out. “They’re just like us, aren’t they?” she rhetorically asked, gesturing to the many Eldians that were going about their business, hurrying up and down the block. “We call them devils, insist on their evilness, but we’ve never actually tried to meet them eye-to-eye, have we?”

How would her brother respond to her blatantly stating her beliefs? Honestly, she didn’t know, and maybe this whole trip was a huge gamble, but she desperately wanted something to come of it.

Lara looked up at Willy. He was observing the crowd too, a blank expression of his face. She wondered if he could see it: the monsters that the entire world claimed these Eldians were. Was everyone blind?

“Why should innocents be punished for other peoples’ transgressions?” She pressed, balling her hands up into fists. “Every single person who participated in the Great Titan War is dead, Eldian or not. There’s no one left to blame, so why does the world insist on punishing these people just for being born?”

Willy was silent. He met her fiery gaze with a somber one of his own.

Her brother was intelligent, almost scarily so. He already knew all of this, already knew of the oxymoron that was Eldian public policy. She wasn’t saying anything new- but she was making him confront it.

From the very first time Lara had witnessed active discrimination against Eldians, she had noticed Willy’s non confrontational attitude towards it. He wouldn’t join in, no, but he also wouldn’t speak up against any injustice. He played the bystander perfectly, but Lara didn’t need that, she needed action.

And she knew her brother was capable of it.

“It’s so easy to demonize people when they’re on the other side of a wall. It’s simple to imagine how awful they must be, how unalike you are in every aspect. How many Marleyans do you think ever come in here?” Lara asked. “Nobody bothers to question their own conceptions of others because it’s easier to hate them as you are.”

Willy turned his eyes back to the street, his gaze landing a nearby Eldian woman with a stroller. The lady was making cooing noises at her baby, wiggling her fingers in front of its face.

His eyes softened a bit, a mix of guilt and resignation present in them. She knew he understood the point she was making.

“I wanted to see this. I wanted you to see this,” Lara admitted, glancing over at the woman too. “That the only thing that truly divides us is our own impressions of each other, and I think we’ve had the wrong impression of these people for a long time.”

She smiled. “This is what I’m fighting for. This is what I want to protect, right here.”

Well, here and Paradis.

Lara tugged on her brother’s jacket sleeve, getting him to look back at her.

“I just wanted you to understand, I guess,” she said, shrugging, “Why I’m doing all this. Why I decided that something had to be done.”

Willy stared at her a moment, face scrunched up a bit in what might have been conflict, before sighing and intertwining her hand with his own.

“I know,” he said, “I know.”

And while that wasn’t fullhearted approval that she heard in his voice, it was acceptance, and Lara figured that she would take it as a good sign.

Acquiescence and endorsement were two very different things, of course, but she could work with the former. She could make do.

All the better for Willy to realize just how serious she was about this.

The pair of siblings stood there for a moment, waiting in silence for the other to say something.

Lara’s objective for the day had been achieved, then. Getting Willy to sympathize more with Eldians and her cause was really her highest priority, and while this visit hadn’t exactly left him screaming “liberation” from the rooftops (not that she ever expected such a thing), Lara was pretty sure she had at least put another crack in Willy’s faith in Marley’s righteous oppression.

Little by little, she would wear him down.

Still though, there was one more thing on her mind. Lara probably wouldn’t be coming back to the zone for a considerable amount of time, at least not until she inherited her titan, and while that still left her a year or two to enact her plans, maybe starting early would be beneficial. It might give her more breathing room.

Of course, that also ran the risk of screwing up the timeline more. Every little thing she changed had consequences, and her actions here could make or break her plans. Did Lara dare to tempt fate?

“…”

Maybe it was time for her to take a risk.

In that case, there was someone that she really needed to meet.

“There was one other thing I wanted to see,” Lara eventually spoke, tapping her brother’s hand.

Willy tilted his head. “And what would that be?” he asked resignedly, almost as if he already knew her request would not be easy to fulfill.

“I want to meet the Warrior candidates.”

Willy just looked at her, closing his eyes for a second before nodding once in acquiescence.

“We’re already nearby,” he said. “I saw it on the way in.” He led her back down the street they had come from, crossing the road and turning a few corners. Lara was relieved that he seemed to have a good sense of direction in the place, as their aimless wandering had unfortunately left her utterly lost. She hadn’t exactly been paying attention to their location so much as their actual surroundings, after all.

She identified the Warrior’s Headquarters the moment she saw the building.

It was large, much larger than any of the houses they had passed, and took up over two city blocks. The walls were stone, and what few windows there were were so dirty that Lara could not see inside. The structure had a parapet, almost resembling an old castle, and was surrounded by a large field most likely used by the recruits for training. Everything was boxed in by tall wire fences.

As the pair walked around the property of the structure to reach the entrance to the headquarters, Lara noticed a group of people on the makeshift track set up within the perimeter.

She felt her heart miss a beat. Was she really this lucky?

“There!” she pointed to the cluster of four or five young soldiers. “Those are the Warrior candidates!” Willy followed her gaze, spotting the group she was referring to. He frowned.

“How do you know it’s them?” he asked. “Those could just be any batch of recruits.”

Lara let herself smile. “Trust me, I just know.” She peered through the fence separating them from the field. There was no doubt about it. Honestly, Lara really hadn’t expected to see him the first time she came here.

She had known it was a stretch, seeking him out. To spot him within seconds of approaching the property? That felt almost too good to be true.

Willy sighed for the upteenth time that day and followed her as she raced around to the building entrance like an excited child.

“I really hope you’re right.” He called after her, rounding a corner and coming to a stop with her at the Warrior Headquarters doors.

“Doors” wasn’t really the right word to use, actually. The entrance to the property was guarded by a wire gate, almost identical to the one marking the beginning of the Intermittent Zone. It was like the area was a zone within a zone, basically.

And, of course, there were guards with guns here too.

Lara and Willy stood at the edge of the block, mostly out of sight. She bit her lip.

Of course, she hadn’t exactly expected to waltz in, but neither had she predicted the level of security of the place. Willy’s little story about “visiting their father who just so happened to work here” probably wouldn’t be enough to get them in, even with his level of charm. In fact, they probably had to have IDs to be permitted to enter. Oh, why hadn’t she thought this out more?

Well, it was because she hadn’t known what she would be expecting. Now she was here, and she didn’t have a clue what to do, even with her target within sight. If it wasn’t for those stupid walls-

Actually…

Lara turned around and pulled Willy to a mostly obscured section of the fence. “Wait,” her brother spluttered, “What are you doing?”

Just like Lara thought, the wire fence was climbable, though probably not for regular civilians. The holes in the steel netting weren’t big enough for even a teenager like Willy to put his feet into, but for her smaller body it would be a cinch. Why they hadn’t thought to put barbed wire across the top, she didn’t know, but she certainly wasn’t complaining.

Lara stepped back from the fencing, checking one last time that no one was watching them.

“Sister, what are you-”

She sprinted at the wall, quickly scaling the fence and leaping over to the other side. Willy stared at her in horror.

She turned around and smiled reassuringly. “I’ll be fine, I promise.” she told him, stepping back towards him, putting her hand against the wiring. “Wait for me here. If I’m not back within an hour, then you can panic.”

Willy would probably kill her for this, but there really was no other route she could take.

Lara ran off towards the track before her brother could say otherwise, the beginnings of a plan forming in her head.

How should I go about this? Should I just introduce myself? Should I try to lure him away? Ask him for help?

If she requested his assistance, he might just deflect the task off to someone else, though Lara didn’t think him the type. If she tried to go about it in a deceitful manner, he would be untrusting when she revealed her identity. Be too blatant, and he might get suspicious. What should she do, what should she do?

Lara was just relieved that she hadn’t run into any of the third gen Warrior recruits. Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt, Marcel, and Pieck had all probably joined the military by now, being roughly the same age as her.

It was of paramount importance that she not be recognized by any of the Eldian spies when she finally ventured within the walls of Paradis and infiltrated the 104th Training Corps. If Annie or someone saw her face in Marley and connected the dots to her origins, there was a chance that they would choose to act. Whether by attempting to kill her, consort with her, or avoid her, it wasn’t worth the risk it brought at driving them out of the corps and into hiding. When Lara was ready to confront them, probably some time during their second year, she wanted it to be on her own terms. That meant keeping them ignorant for as long as possible.

If she was seen by any of the future 104th, especially if they learned of her name, then her future plans would be thrown into jeopardy. She could not allow that to happen.

Luckily, Lara hadn’t recognized any of the Warrior recruits she had seen from the other side of the fence. If things went well, then she wouldn’t be noticed by anyone save her target.

The candidates were in sight now, having finished running and now dispersing to get a drink of water. She could make out five different people, all at least five years older than her and dressed in similar beige uniforms. They were probably about to leave.

Perfect.

Lara came to stop behind a conveniently-located tree and waited for the recruits to pack up their belongings, slowly returning to the main building. Luckily, her target stayed behind with another straggler. She needed to move now.

She took a deep breath, in and out, and began to walk forward, her face a mask of confidence. She knew what she was doing. She belonged here.

Lara was noticed rather quickly once she left her hiding spot along the fence. Her target watched her curiously, trying to ascertain her reason for being here, while the other recruit just shrugged and continued to pack away his things. When it was made obvious that his fellow candidate wasn’t going to make a move, the recruit that was watching her rose from his spot on the ground and began to walk towards her. Lara and the boy met in the middle, and from the corner of her eye she saw the second trainee finally leave.

The boy smiled and lowered himself to her height.

He was tall, hair a tad curly and clothes sweaty from exercise. He was much younger and didn’t have a beard, and he wasn’t wearing any glasses, but Lara recognized him all the same.

“Are you lost?” Zeke Jaeger asked, tilting his head to the side questioningly. “How did you get in here?”

He looked so strange like this, innocent in a way that he had never really been portrayed in the manga. In 841, Zeke would have been 16, still only a candidate for the Beast Titan. God, he was the same age as her brother.

Lara ignored the question. “I really wanted to speak to you,” she said calmly, not letting her wonderment show on her face. “You’re a candidate too, right?”

Zeke frowned at her then, eyes flicking to his armband. His was yellow, the color reserved only for Warrior trainees. He probably just thought she had noticed it. She could work with that assumption.

“Not a very good one, but yes,” he murmured uncomfortably, before looking up at her and narrowing his eyes in confusion.

“Where’s your armband? You aren’t supposed to take it off,” he admonished her. Lara only smiled.

Oh, Lara really hoped that this had been a good idea. Approaching a younger Zeke could be both a boon or a bane, but she wouldn’t know until she got to properly sit down and talk with him.

“I don’t need to wear one.” she told him. Zeke shook his head slightly in incomprehension.

“Didn’t you say you were a Warrior candidate, though?”

Well, regardless of if this course of action was wise, she was beyond the point of no return. Might as well go all the way, right?

Lara shook her head as well. “Not exactly,” she told him. “I’m not in the Warrior program, but I am a candidate to inherit a titan.”

Lara curtseyed, dipping her head in respect.

It was now or never.

“My name is Lara Tybur, and I really want to talk to you.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I'd just really like to thank everyone who's left comments on this fic. You all have said such nice things, and I really appreciate the feedback and encouragement. I do read every single comment, even if I don't always respond, and it really makes my day when I get a nice word from a stranger. Thanks, guys.
> 
> Also.
> 
> Whoops, my finger slipped and I accidentally wrote a 7500 word chapter. I considered breaking it up, but... nah, that would've ruined the flow. Hope you guys enjoy the longest update in the fic so far! I'm actually pretty proud of this one. I might continue with doing longer chapters like this, but that means I would be updating less frequently, sooooo idk.

Lara paced the Tybur parlor room with a look of worry on her face. She occasionally paused, glancing up at the fine clock that sat upon the mantle of the fireplace, before going back to wearing a hole in the wooden floorboards. Willy sat on a chaise located in the middle of the room, arms crossed. He showed none of the concern that was present in his sister’s actions.

“Oh, why isn’t he here yet?” Lara bemoaned, finally resting on one of the plush chairs that filled the room. She ran a hand through her hair, currently tied back in a braid behind her head. “It’s almost noon. Shouldn’t he have arrived by now?”

“If he arrives at noon, then he will be on time,” Willy replied impatiently. He seemed annoyed, though this attitude was not due to Lara’s antics. “Not everyone shares your obsession with arriving early to social events.”

Lara groaned and buried her face in her hands. “But what if he doesn’t come?” she asked, concern palpable in her voice. “What if he has no interest in meeting at all? What am I supposed to do then?”

“Find someone else, Lara,” her brother huffed, shooting her a look of confusion. “I still don’t understand why you’re so insistent upon meeting this Eldian. There are several other Warrior candidates. You know this, you saw them.”

Lara couldn’t explain to Willy Zeke’s importance, at least not right then. When she had originally seen the cadet in the Warrior’s Headquarters, she had been pleasantly delighted at how easy he was to locate. She had honestly expected to be forced to make a return trip, possibly several, to get the chance to speak with him.

Now, however, she had to wait for Zeke to come to her, and it was driving Lara mad. Having things be put outside her control was a recipe for disaster.

She hadn’t exactly been thinking when she offered to receive Zeke as a guest in her home, but she hadn’t had much of a choice at the time.

Back when Lara had first climbed over the fence to the headquarters and ran to meet the future Beast Titan, she had had a plan in mind on how to get him to talk to her. To begin with, she would introduce herself to keep Zeke from immediately dismissing her. Next, she would express her desire to have a conversation with the cadet, and make it clear that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Zeke was smart, intelligence off the charts actually, and certainly would have been both intrigued and cautious enough to entertain her request. Especially if he knew she was a titan shifter.

She had represented both a threat and an opportunity to him. Being a Tybur, she technically had the ability to do whatever with him that she pleased, due to Marley’s backwards laws about the civil rights of Eldians. He couldn’t afford to ignore her, not when she was able to endanger everything he loved with just a word and a finger.

Not that she would ever do something so repugnant, but Zeke didn’t know that. Wouldn’t have been able to assume anything about her moral character. When she had introduced herself as a member of the most powerful family in Marley, it had been akin to handing him a bomb but not revealing if it was ticking. Zeke couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t explode, but he also couldn’t run away. The only action he could take was to attempt to defuse her.

Hopefully with time he would come to trust her, eventually learning that there had been no bomb, no threat, to begin with. She wouldn’t harm him.

But that had been their first interaction, and Lara had to use whatever tools Zeke provided her with.

When she had sufficiently captured his attention, she had planned on leading them to a secluded spot so that they could discuss things in private. Lara wanted to express her excitement at meeting a fellow shifter candidate, wanted to request that Zeke become her confidant. She could disguise her interest in him as a lonely girl looking for a friend, which she technically was, and hopefully achieve some sort of rapport.

The end goal had been to secure Zeke as, at the very least, an occasional companion with whom she could have conversations. There were two years left till Lara inherited her titan, and though she couldn’t approach him with her full plans until she had an explanation for her knowledge, Lara desperately wanted to establish some sort of foundation between them from which she could build off of.

When Lara turned 9, she would consume her aunt and carry on the legacy of the Warhammer Titan. This also came with the inheritance of memories, that which had spurned the original Lara and Willy Tybur to declare war or Paradis.

When she turned 9, Lara planned to reveal both her aspirations of social revision and memories of the Tybur family to Willy and, if she could trust him, Zeke. If she could convince both men not only of her legitimacy but also the validity of her plan, gaining their aid, then saving the people of Paradis might just be possible.

Lara had a hundred cards in her hand, and though she did not relish the thought, if showing them would guarantee a future for her and those she fought to protect, then she would come clean to her allies in a heartbeat.

This was the only way she could think of to sway Zeke from his aspirations of euthanization. If she layed out everything on the table, gave him a reasonable solution to the suffering of Eldians, maybe even enlightened him of Eren’s existence, then maybe, just maybe, he would join her.

She had no reason to trust him, true. Zeke was a wild card, and had the potential to turn the entire game around. However, she could trust Zeke to be himself and, hopefully, that was all she needed.

One way or another, he needed to become her ally. Not only would it aid her in convincing the three Marley spies when she approached them in the 104th Training Corps, but possibly also help with smoothing over establishing trade between Marley and Paradis. Zeke was quite the motivational speaker, after all.

But really, Lara just needed him to not become her enemy. Zeke was beyond her in every way. He could outsmart her and outfight her. Her foreknowledge wouldn’t be enough to beat him if they ever found themselves on opposing sides of a battlefield. If he pursued his euthanasia plan, even with every single key player on her side, Lara didn’t know if she would be able to stop him.

So, she needed to prevent it altogether. Zeke hadn’t inherited his titan yet, but he had become friends with the current Beast Titan. That meant that the seed of euthanasia was already planted in his head. If she could curb its growth by offering a better alternative, then maybe things would work out.

It was true that Lara could have also attempted to bring the future titan shifters into the fold. If she would’ve been able to secure the loyalty of Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie this early in the game, it would make her job in Paradis vastly more simple.

However, she hadn’t felt comfortable taking the plunge. The three Eldian children were too young to truly understand or question Marley, most likely, and would probably view her goals as an act of treason. If she wanted to bring them to her side, the best time to do it would be when they were older and away from the influence of the empire, deep within the walls of Paradis as the 104th Training Corps.

If she confronted them now and they rejected her, then there was too good a chance that they would either sell her out or, even if they kept quiet, go on to recognize her when they met up again inside the military.

She couldn’t risk that.

So yeah, her plan had just involved Zeke.

Find him, talk to him, and convince him to keep meeting her. Lara hadn’t been super confident in it, but had been willing to give things a shot.

Problem was, she never made it to step three. The reason for that...

“Lara!”

… was her brother.

Back in the Intermittent Zone, after she had only just finished introducing herself to Zeke, Lara had looked up in shock to see Willy sprinting across the fields of the Warrior’s Headquarters directly towards her.

She had been stunned.

He had climbed the fence. Her brother had climbed the fence and come racing after her. Willy, who still couldn’t run a half mile without collapsing in exhaustion, who was unable to lift even her lightest poleaxe, had climbed a fence over 10 feet tall because he wanted to stop her from doing something stupid.

Lara would have been touched if she hadn’t been so horrified.

Willy wouldn’t let her stay here. The moment he reached her, he would demand that they return to the streets of the Intermittent Zone before they were spotted. Maybe he was just being conscientious, but her leaving now would throw a wrench in Lara’s plans. She needed to talk to Zeke, but there was no way her brother would allow such a thing while they were trespassing.

She wanted to trust that her brother would listen to her if she asked to stay, understand that what she was doing was important and support her, Lara really did. The thing was, she couldn’t trust that Willy would let her put herself in danger, not even if she begged him to. He valued her safety over her love for him, and though that thought was sweet, dammit if it wasn’t inconvenient.

Crap. What was she supposed to do?

She could try to take Zeke with her, get him to meet her in a cafe or something so they could talk there, but there was a good chance that Willy would forbid that outright and drag her home. Her brother had never signed up for breaking into a government facility, after all, and was probably about done with her antics for the day.

Not to mention that she probably couldn’t stay in the zone much longer. It had already been two hours since they had entered, and their absence at the Tybur manor would soon be noticed. Lara didn’t have time to argue with her brother or arrange a rendezvous for later today, and once she left, it would probably be a good long while before Willy was willing to take her here again.

She was out of time. Willy would force her to return home, and her initial introduction to Zeke would be ruined. She had been incredibly lucky this time, but Lara might not be able to find the candidate during a second visit, much less get him alone, and after this he might not even be willing to talk with her (if he ever was in the first place).

Now, Lara wasn’t very good at thinking on her feet. She preferred to meticulously plan out her actions well in advance, considering and accounting for the many different ways a conversation could go. She liked to think things through, spend days brainstorming possible solutions and writing out speeches. Never, never, never did she make things up on the fly. Even her decision to find Zeke early had been precalculated, an option that she had given plenty of thought and eventually set aside as being inconvenient, only to fall back on it when she had the opportunity.

But she had never accounted for Willy. Lara had been certain that he would not or could not climb the fence, and had based all her plans around that prediction. Now, after this turn of events, everything was up in the air, and every contingency plan of Lara’s was lost.

Basically, she panicked.

Lara had turned to Zeke, standing baffled as her brother crossed the field hurriedly towards them, and asked him to come visit her manor.

She had smiled and assured him that she would handle everything, have a permit to leave the zone delivered to him and a private cab set up to transport him, so that Zeke would not be left walking on the hostile streets of Marley. She had shaken his hand, even when he stared at her in utter surprise and confusion, and told him that she was desperate to speak to someone like him.

Normally, Eldians weren’t allowed out of the Intermittent Zone unless they were leaving to serve in war, were hired for a job outside the walls, or being shipped off to Paradis. However, permits could be granted by powerful Marleyans that allowed for them to exit the zone in a completely legal fashion.

And Lara just happened to be the daughter of the most powerful Marleyan family out there. A permit would be simple to attain.

Well, really, the only way she could get one was through Willy. Neither her mother nor her father would ever even consider granting her such a thing, especially if they discovered what it was for. Even being Eldians themselves, Ingrid and Johann Tybur were steadfast in their assimilation of Marleyan culture, and that included all their biases. The very thought of an Eldian being granted visiting rights to their home would cause them to likely faint.

Needless to say, Zeke would be her little secret for the time being.

By the time that Willy had finally crossed the stretch of land between them and the fence, Lara had finished with giving Zeke all the necessary info, setting up a date and time for him to visit.

This had all been done rather one-sidedly, as the candidate hadn’t offered up any words since Lara had told him her name. Zeke didn’t even speak when her brother grabbed her arm and dragged her back towards the fence, opting instead to look at her with an inscrutable expression.

Technically, she had never actually received confirmation, not even as she yelled out the instructions one last time before being hauled up the property fence and disappearing from view.

Lara hadn’t been sure if Zeke would come or not. She imagined at the time that he, like many other Eldians, wished to leave the compound, even if it was only for a short while. And though her very presence was dangerous to him, Zeke probably was curious about her, maybe even interested in gaining her favor.

She didn’t understand the boy well enough to know for certain, but she predicted that he would take the risk and visit her.

Of course, now that Lara was forced to wait for him to arrive, she looked back on her previous actions and cringed.

“He’s probably not coming,” she mumbled dispiritedly. “He’s too smart to put himself in this much danger. He would be defenseless here.” Zeke wouldn’t choose to enter the lair of a Marleyan, not when he didn’t have the power of the Beast Titan to back him up. Tyburs may be Eldians, but that probably wouldn’t gain Lara any trust.

“We do indeed represent quite a risk, being who we are, and him being who he is,” Willy commented offhandedly, obviously displeased with the situation, though not for the same reason she was. “So why on earth did you invite him here? You don’t even know his name!”

That’s right, Lara wasn’t supposed to know Zeke’s name. He had never introduced himself.

Her brother had been rather unhappy with her when he dragged her from the confines of the Intermittent Zone. He switched back and forth between being angry at her for putting herself in so much danger and annoyed at her for seemingly latching onto a stranger and inviting them to their home.

On both points, Lara conceded that he had a right to be so upset. She had taken Willy along with her without ever really explaining her plan, and it was only natural for him to take issue with her actions. Not that she could have ever explained why it was Zeke she needed and no other, but the point still stood that she had treated Willy unfairly.

A small part of Lara wondered if her brother had actually been more bothered by her desire to bring Zeke into her circle than her act of singling out a stranger during their trip. The two of them were inseparable, had been since she was born, and Lara had never let anyone but Willy get close to her. Well, Willy and Agatha. There had just never been anyone else that Lara could stand, much less trust, among the noble children that she met through her parents. Her brother was probably used to being her only friend.

Well, she was probably just reading too much into it. Willy wasn’t that petty, nor was he that possessive. Her brother was meant to be her better half, after all.

She had apologized to him later, both for her recklessness and her disregard for him, and Willy had just hugged her and made Lara promise not to endanger herself in such a way again.

It was all Lara could do at the time to lie, to swear that she would keep away from danger when she knew she would be traveling to the most dangerous place in the world in a few years.

It was times like these when Lara thought that she really didn’t deserve her brother.

A knocking resounded through the parlor, interrupting her thoughts.

The door to the room opened, and a family servant stepped inside. He was clothed in a black, nondescript suit, similar to all the other servants her family kept.

“Your guest has arrived,” the man said in a controlled tone, showing no emotion on his face. He had probably noticed the armband, then.

Lara felt her heart fall out of her chest.

“Wonderful!” she replied, disguising her panic with excitement. “Please, show him in.”

The servant quickly left the room, closing the door behind him. Willy gave him a short glance before turning to her.

Oh, what was Lara going to do? She hadn’t actually expected him to show up, hadn’t anticipated that he would look past the risk it entailed. She was happy, of course, delighted even that something had gone right, but that meant that her long-awaited conversation with Zeke was about to happen.

Her stomach fluttered with nerves. Lara was about to give the performance of her life, and she needed to make a good impression. Oh, if only she had a script to read from!

Everything relied on this. Getting Zeke to help her would make everything ten times easier, and turning Zeke against her would make things a hundred times harder. She had to do this. She had to do this. She had to-

“Hey.”

Lara turned to look at her brother, pulled out of her thoughts by his voice.

“You look like you’re about to faint,” Willy commented, eyebrows furrowed. “Are you that nervous about meeting him?”

Oh god. She was, she really was, more nervous then she had ever been in her whole seven years of life.

“I’m alright,” Lara gave her brother a weak smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes. Willy was not fooled.

“Whoever this boy is to you, whatever he means to your plans: none of that matters if you pass out before you can speak to him,” Willy assured, scooting closer and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Lara stiffened.

Willy read her face and gave a consolatory smile. The corner of his mouth quirked, and he seemed almost resigned.

“It’s pretty obvious that you’re scheming, Lara. Mostly because of how much you seem to want to keep it from me,” he sighed, rubbing her arm. “I know that he’s important to you, though I don’t know why, and that’s the only reason I’m letting you meet with a complete stranger in our home,” he stressed, meeting her wide eyes.

Lara just looked at him.

What was she supposed to say? Yes, that this was part of her plan? A plan she had never told him about? A plan that he probably knew involved him, too?

Did he think that she was using him? Using Zeke?

Wasn’t she?

Willy answered her stare with one of his own, soft eyes taking her in. In one movement, he closed the distance between them and pressed her into an embrace, tighter than any she had received from him before.

He lowered his mouth to her ear and spoke in a whisper.

“I’ll try to help you however I can, so stop panicking. You aren’t doing this alone. I’m right here with you.”

Willy smiled against her forehead.

“I promise to stay by your side, Lara. Always.”

Those words were spoken like an oath. She pulled back in shock. Did he really mean that?

Lara was doomed to go to places that Willy could not follow. She had already come to terms with this, already accepted the fact that, eventually, her brother’s devotion would hit a block. Every person had their limit, and he could only be pushed so far. How could her brother promise to always be with her when there would come a time that Lara asked him for something he could not give?

Lara hesitated, searching Willy’s face for any sign of insincerity.

Her brother’s gaze was unwavering, bright blue eyes clear with resolve. She could see everything in those eyes, see exactly what Willy was committing to.

He meant it. He really meant it. Her brother was serious about this.

They would do this together.

“...Willy?”

The entirety of her new life, Lara had been alone. Utterly forsaken in a hostile world, with no one to truly rely on, no one she could confide in. Willy… was offering something else. He wanted her to trust him, to believe in him. He was consenting to becoming a game piece, true, but also promising his love and companionship.

This was a vow of loyalty.

“You’re my sister, Lara, and nothing, absolutely nothing that you do will change that. There is nothing in this world that can make me stop loving you.” Willy smiled. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that before.”

Willy wanted to be her knight.

Lara laughed, the sound coming out more like sobs. “It’s alright,” she said. “I know. I know.”

He was trusting her with the game board, trusting her strategy.

These idyllic days wouldn’t last forever, and both of them knew it. When the time came for action, for Lara to sunder the pillars of Marleyan supremacy and reveal the truth to the world, when she was ready to put everything on the line and take a leap of faith, Willy would be right there with her. He would catch her if she fell.

No, she really didn’t deserve her brother. But he was here with her anyways.

* * *

By the time Zeke arrived at the parlor, Lara had completely dried her tears.

The door creaked open, hesitantly at first, as if the boy was afraid to step inside. The first thing she could make out was bright yellow hair, a shade or two warmer than Willy’s own golden locks, and two guarded blue eyes attached to a pale face.

Zeke stood in the archway, taking in the room with a look of veiled wariness.

He was wearing a suit, probably the nicest thing he owned, and had his hair slicked back. He shifted uncomfortably, as if he wasn’t used to the stiff clothes, and Lara would have giggled if she hadn’t known the boy would probably take offense. Honestly, he looked strange, like he was out of his element, and Lara felt her respect for Zeke grow. He had been very brave coming here, after all.

She thought it was a bit strange, though, that he felt the need for formal attire as when she had originally approached him, he was wearing nothing more than a sweaty uniform. Lara herself hadn’t dressed up much, as she hadn’t wanted to intimidate the poor boy anymore than the gaudy décor of the manor surely had.

Zeke looked at her and frowned, barely perceptible. He made no move to enter the room.

It was just so strange, to look at this boy and instead see the man he would become. As a child, Zeke had a round face and was quite skinny, rather unlike his future self, but Lara couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the character she knew.

Having the future titan shifter here, in front of her now, felt like a little bit too much. She felt a thread of anxiety wrap around her chest, suffocating her.

She had tried to compose herself, but her nerves still felt a little frayed. She was scared, scared of this boy and what he meant for the future.

Lara wasn’t sure she could do this.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Willy give her an assured nod. He smiled, as if sharing a secret just between the two of them, and flicked his eyes towards the candidate stood in the doorway. The message was clear.

Go get ‘em, tiger.

Right then.

She would show her brother what she was made of.

“Please, take a seat,” Lara gestured to one of the sofas sat around the room. “There’s no need to stand on formality.”

If she was going to do this, then she was going to do it the right way. Willy was trusting her, after all, and she wanted to give him a show, assure him that she was capable of this. Prove that his faith had not been misplaced.

She smiled at Zeke warmly.

“I’ve really been looking forward to this, after all.”

* * *

Zeke Jaeger was nervous.

Silver eyes pierced through him, a wizened stare that originated from a girl far too young for it to belong to. It felt like being vivisected, like he was being categorized and labelled as he was sucked into their depths. He could feel his layers being peeled away, one by one, as he was exposed for all to see.

Zeke stayed paused in the doorway, unsure of if he was making the right decision.

When he was first approached by Lara Tybur, Zeke had been certain of his demise. There were very few reasons that a Marleyan of such high standing would choose to grace him with their presence, and even fewer of those reasons were positive.

Death? Conspiracy? Manipulation? Murder?

In that moment, Zeke’s mind had shuffled through the many possibilities.

It was not unheard of for Eldians to be accosted in the street, even inside the walls. But, no, if petty violence was the goal, then he would have been approached when he was more vulnerable, not inside the highest security facility in the zone. Then, perhaps he was being lured out so he could be arrested? But that couldn’t be it either; why would the police enlist the help of a young girl, much less a Tybur?

After all, Zeke was a criminal, even if his only offense was thought crime. Any negative sentiments towards the totalitarian police state that was the Liberio Intermittent Zone, vocalized or not, were viable to land him on the shores of Paradis. Eldian deaths went easily overlooked, and it did not take much for an officer to have an excuse to shoot.

Perhaps one of his games with Ksaver had been overheard? Zeke was sure that the two of them spoke of many things that could lead to a man being jailed.

What did they have on him? Where had he made a mistake? Did they know of his family? Would they use them against him? His brain had been going a mile a minute, trying to anticipate, to prepare for whatever charges this young girl would throw at him.

To think that Zeke had mistaken her for an Eldian at first glance. She had been, after all, in the depths of the Intermittent Zone, even if she had worn no armband, no uniform. His kindness had been his downfall.

In that moment, when he had been greeted by ruin, Zeke had been tempted to shut his eyes tight, not wanting to look death in the face.

He had not been threatened, however, by Lara Tybur.

No, far from it in fact.

The brief words that she spoke to him were not accusations, but instead in invitation to tea at her family's manor.

This, of course, set Zeke immediately on edge, except… she had asked him so fervently, with such determination in her eyes. She hadn’t appeared to mind his grubby state of dress at the time, and paid no attention to the mud that he was sure was streaked across his face. She didn’t wrinkle her nose at him, didn’t keep her distance like the few other upper-class Marleyans Zeke had had the displeasure of conversing with.

She had simply looked deep into his eyes, staring resolutely, and asked if he would like to take tea with her, almost as if it were a matter of life and death.

Zeke couldn’t help but be intrigued.

But… A Tybur, huh?

He didn’t know how he felt about that.

In a world that treated Eldians like the scum of the earth, only one family was spared from the hate of the masses. The reason that Zeke, that his parents and his parent’s parents lived enduring scorn and suffering just… didn’t apply to the Tyburs. They were the lone exception. The outlier, the anomaly, a “special case”. He didn’t think that was very fair.

Why, even though they were of the same blood, were he and Lara Tybur treated so differently?

Because of their ancestors, people long dead. Hers had aided Marley, and his had, supposedly, fought against it. Because of the actions of a group of people that lived over a hundred years ago, the Tyburs lived like royalty while Zeke lived like a caged rat. That was the justification this world gave them, that was society’s reasoning.

What a load of shit.

Lara Tybur’s birth had been seen as a gift to the world. His, the spreading of an infestation. They existed at the top and bottom of the social pyramid, with infinity stretching between them.

Zeke wanted to despise her then, despise everything that she, the Tyburs, Marley, and humanity stood for. Living was suffering, and only a select few were spared. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair.

But…

He hadn’t asked to be born. Not into this body, not into this life, and neither had Lara Tybur. It was chance, just randomness, that they found themselves meeting like this. Her, being the scion of a powerful Marleyan family, and him, worth nothing more than the clothes on his back.

Zeke couldn’t resolve himself to hate her. At least, not on principle.

This young girl, who couldn’t be older than six or seven, who donned a dress made of fabrics that probably would have cost his grandfather his year’s wage, had climbed over a gate three times her height and trespassed on government property just to speak to him.

She showed no fear, no hesitation, even though she was, quite frankly, placing herself at great risk.

After all, what did Marleyans believe them to be but devils, monsters carrying the filthy blood of a titan queen. To invite conversation with one was asking to be devoured, and to so alone was suicide. What had possessed this little child to do such a thing? To look death in the eye and request its presence for brunch?

She reminded Zeke a bit of himself.

Not of his younger self, but of his current one. At her age, Zeke had surrendered his own parents in a necessary act of self-preservation. He had felt numb, at the time, though justified in his actions, and he had not regretted it. Still, Zeke as a child had hesitated, and hadn't been truly sure of himself until that final, terrible moment.

He couldn’t help but wonder if Lara Tybur would feel that same hesitation, if she were to find herself in a similar situation.

Zeke was probably a fool, to accept her invitation. After all, he was an Eldian, and she was… no, she was an Eldian too, even if the Tyburs were on the side of Marley. But, even if she had treated him with courtesy, he doubted the girl saw them as equals.

He was entering the den of the beast, and he knew it.

But Lara Tybur had courted that same beast by approaching him. He had to acknowledge that bravery, wanted to prove that he was capable of it too. He was supposed to be older, after all.

This was all in his head, Zeke knew that. Why he had experienced such a strong reaction to such a small gesture was beyond him. To follow this child back into the city would be illogical, folly at its finest. He would be defenseless, easy pickings for any who should wish him ill, and wouldn’t that count every single Marleyan, the Tyburs included?

No, better to ignore her actions outright. If he was to be a pawn in someone’s game of chess, then let it be his own board, not the playing field of another. He shouldn’t go, shouldn’t acknowledge, shouldn’t cooperate…

Still, Zeke had used her permit to leave the Intermittent Zone, had found her private car and allowed himself to be driven along the streets of a city that thought him nothing more than trash that littered it. He had let a servant open his car door and take his coat, and had obliged to be seen into the opulent manor.

What was he doing?

From the moment he opened the door to the parlor, Zeke had felt himself being sized up, both by the regal child that sat by the fireplace, hands primly crossed in her lap, and by the skulking teenager who lurked at the edge of the room, eying the candidate with a look of scrutiny.

The teenager was probably her brother, and also a Tybur, he reasoned. Zeke had seen him briefly when the young girl had first introduced herself back in the Intermittent Zone, curtseying to him in a practiced manner before being dragged away. He looked a bit like himself, actually, sharing the same blond hair and probably being around the same age, though that was where the similarities ended.

Where Zeke was tanned and toned from his years of miserable training from the Warrior’s program, this teenager was soft, skin smooth and unblemished and hair shiny. They could not be more different when it came to lifestyle, surely. This elder brother had probably never worked a day in his life.

The girl, Lara Tybur, was a bit different.

Whereas her brother had looked delicate, all subtle edges contrasted with an aristocratic profile, the female Tybur was hard, almost as if carved out of marble. Her posture was statuesque, entirely still save for the soft rise and fall of her chest to ensure that, yes, she was very much alive. What should have been the face of an impatient child (as Zeke had arrived a bit late) was instead settled in an impossibly calm expression. Dark tranquil eyes observed him, taking in his drab appearance, and Zeke wondered what kind of childhood could leave a young girl this solemn.

She looked as if she was resolved to go to war.

Her dark, ebony hair hung low at her waist, weighed down by its own size. It curled around her face, highlighting her pale skin and black eyes. Her body, while slim and obscured by excessive fabrics, seemed incredibly solid, as if she possessed a strength that Zeke could not imagine a girl of her age cultivating. The way she held herself betrayed the power hidden in her figure.

Despite the fancy clothes, despite the expensive jewelry and perfectly-manicured nails, Lara Tybur looked like a soldier.

The girl smiled serenely at him. “Please, take a seat,” she offered, gesturing towards one of the many plush chairs that lined the elegantly-furnished room. “There’s no need to stand on ceremony.”

The edge of her smile quirked, and her eyes twinkled as if the two of them were sharing an inside joke. Zeke couldn't help but wonder if they really had never met before.

“I’ve really been looking forward to this, after all.”

These words confused him, made him yet again question this girl’s motives.

What did Lara Tybur want with him?

Zeke sat in the chair across from the girl, about five feet away with a table laying between them. Silly as it might sound, he felt comforted knowing there was a solid obstacle separating him from this strange child.

He forced a smile. “I can’t imagine why, though,” Zeke responded, trying to keep his voice calm. “I don’t even know why I’m here.”

At this, his host’s smile dropped a bit, eyebrows furrowing minutely in reaction to his statement. She looked troubled, and Zeke got the strange impression that she was frustrated, not at him but at herself, though her expression didn’t betray much emotion. It was impressive, how controlled this girl was. If he didn’t know better, if he hadn’t noticed the slight tensing of her mouth, Zeke would’ve mistaken her countenance for one of irritation. Not that he could blame her for being guarded, of course.

Lara Tybur had no reason to trust him, after all.

“Yes, well…” the girl began, sighing lowly, “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, to tell you the truth. I had planned to speak with you under different circumstances, but-”

A cough came from the corner of the room, the male Tybur having cleared his throat rather deliberately.

His young conversation partner shot the teenager a look tinged with annoyance. Her mouth twisted into something that almost resembled a pout as she subtley narrowed her eyes at him. Zeke recalled that it had been this person who had interrupted their first meeting, who had dragged Lara Tybur away from him and back out of the restricted government facility.

The young girl held her dirty look for a second longer before taking a deep, calming breath and letting her expression relax.

“This is my older brother, Willy.” she pointed her hand in the direction of the blond disruption. “He was rather unamused by my previous jaunt into the Warrior’s Headquarters, regrettably, and takes a particular joy in interfering with my work.” She gave Zeke a small smile and tilted her head. “Please, don’t pay him any mind right now. He’s just here to chaperone.”

The cadet turned toward Willy, trying to gauge his level of hostility, but the teenager had already gone back to his position as a wallflower, silently observing their conversation. He didn’t acknowledge Zeke at all.

“Sure,” he said, shifting back to face the young girl.

How ironic it was, for a low class Eldian to be asked to ignore the presence of a member of the Tybur family. Zeke didn’t appreciate getting glowered at, but he could certainly find some humor in his situation.

Lara Tybur straightened up, her face shifting back to a mask of composure.

“First, I’d like to make proper introductions, if you don’t mind,” she let out another little secret smile. “Our first meeting could hardly be called conventional, after all.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled, collecting herself for a moment, before reopening them and meeting Zeke’s gaze.

“My name is Lara Tybur, as I already said, and I am the only daughter of the Tybur family,” the girl started with, placing a hand on her chest. “At a very young age, I was chosen to inherit the titan that runs in my family line: the Warhammer Titan.”

Willy spluttered from his position in the corner, but his sister didn’t stop to acknowledge him.

She continued. “I am set to receive the titan in two years time, when my predecessor will be near death from the Curse of Ymir.”

The girl paused. “Do you know what the Curse of Ymir is?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Yes.” Ksaver had told him of it, several years in the past. Zeke knew of it, knew of the delayed death sentence it brought to any who should be so unlucky as to become a titan shifter. He had come to terms with the inevitability of his life being cut short, had been given ample time to grieve and accept his own prophesized demise, but to hear a child ten years younger than him speak of that same shared impending death filled his heart with an emotion that Zeke couldn’t quite identify.

Sorrow, perhaps? Pity?

Lara Tybur simply nodded, as if they had just been discussing the weather. “I’m glad you know,” she said, smiling a bit. “I was worried Marley would keep that little detail a secret from the Warrior candidates.”

They had, but Zeke didn’t comment on it.

“Speaking of that,” the girl seemed to have gotten sidetracked, “What’s your name?” She tilted her head to the side in curiosity.

His name. Zeke had never given her his name.

God, he was so stupid.

She gave him a soft smile, full of some foreign sympathy that Zeke couldn’t even begin to comprehend. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just realized that I never asked it.” The girl let out a quiet sigh, glancing away in what Zeke could have sworn was a bit of embarrassment.. “I probably should have started with that, rather than introducing myself again.”

Yeah, probably, but he wasn’t going to comment on that either.

“My name is Zeke Jaeger, Lady Tybur,” he answered her, awkwardly bowing in a show of respect. He couldn’t really bend very much while seated, of course, but Zeke still made an effort to dip his head towards the girl.

He looked back up at his conversation partner.

The female child looked like she had just eaten a lemon, face pursed in an expression of displeasure. Zeke felt his heart skip a beat, wondering if his borrowed time had finally run out.

A jolt of adrenaline rushed through him, and Zeke nearly recoiled from the girl. His right foot kicked out on reflex, prepared to spring into action in a true display of fight-or-flight instinct, and he almost knocked over the table that sat between the two of them.

She immediately smoothed out her mouth, noting his flinch. She looked at him guiltily, a bit of sadness mixed in with her expression. Her eyes seemed to say I’m sorry, though Zeke didn’t have a clue why.

“Please, just call me Lara,” The girl requested, smile a bit strained. “There’s no reason for you to address me as anything else. Just Lara is fine.”

Zeke hesitated, watching her face for any sign of deceit, before nodding slowly.

Lara mirrored his nod, relaxing her smile a bit. “It’s nice to meet you, Zeke,” she said, offering her hand to him.

Zeke stared at the hand for a moment, not quite comprehending what was being asked of him.

Slowly, he brought his hand up to hers and softly gripped it.

Lara let out a tiny giggle at that, the most emotion she had shown during their odd conversation, and shook his hand firmly.

“It’s nice to meet you too… Lara,” Zeke replied, the girl’s name sitting strange on his tongue. It didn’t feel bad, per say, just alien.

She offered yet another small smile at this.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, we can finally have a proper conversation,” She laughed a bit, running a hand through her hair.

“Zeke, you’re probably wondering why I called you here,” she spoke, looking at him with what might have been veiled excitement. “Especially since, until now, I didn’t even know your name.”

Well, he certainly couldn’t deny that. Zeke was near desperate to know what whim had possessed this girl that led to him sitting in the Tybur family parlor.

Lara met his curious gaze, face betraying nothing. “To tell you the truth, you’re here because you’re special.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on a short table in front of her.

Special. Special like family of insurgents special? Special like royal blood special? But no, she hadn’t even known Zeke’s name until a minute ago, there was no way she could know that stuff about him.

Unless she was lying…?

“Zeke,” Lara addressed him, face now serious. This close, he could make out the silver specks of color in her dark eyes. It made him uncomfortable, being watched by them, made him feel like she could see every part of him.

She placed her hand on his and smiled.

“I would like to ask you to be my friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, writing Zeke was really a struggle in this chapter. Turns out, he was ranked an 11/10 in intelligence in the official Attack on Titan Handbook, making him and Hanji the smartest humans alive. Trying to find that balance between genius and nervous teenager was difficult, but I think I like how it turned out.


End file.
